


Perpendicular (Voltron x Reader s1)

by Threbony



Series: Transcending Reality (Voltron x reader) [1]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Eventual Romance, F/F, F/M, Fluff, I Don't Even Know, Reader-Insert, Romance, YOOO HERE WE GOOO
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-16
Updated: 2019-03-20
Packaged: 2019-08-03 06:50:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 34
Words: 58,111
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16321229
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Threbony/pseuds/Threbony
Summary: Previously known as: Transcending RealityOK, where the hell are you? One minute you’re all alone in a sketchy area, looking for your friend; the next you’re being skyrocketed upwards in a lavender cat-like spaceship of sorts! With no idea what to do, you sit there. And wait. For something- anything to happen. Until you pass out, that is. Just what have you gotten yourself into this time?Disclaimer: I do not own Voltron, nor do I own youAlso on Quotev and Wattpad.





	1. Official Love Interests

Love Interests~

Male

-Shiro

-Keith

-Lance

-Hunk

-Matt

-Lotor (I’m still salty tho cuz of s6 so don’t expect too much)

 

Female

-Pidge

-Allura

 

 

 

yo if you wan me to add anymore lemme know k?

love youuu

xoxo

~Threbony


	2. Key

**Key**  
  
(y/f/n) - your full name  
(y/n) - your name/ the name you preferred to be called by

(y/b/n) - your best friend's name  
(h/c) - hair color  
(h/l) - hair length  
(s/c) - skin color/hue (pale/fair/dark etc.)  
(y/h) - your height  
(y/a) - your age  
(b/d) - birthday  
(c/n) - country name/nationality

(city) - put in a city name  
(f/c) - favor color  
(f/f) - favorite food  
(f/a) - favorite animal

 **.**               **.                        .** \- this is what I use for a time skip or POV change

-tbh, I don't even know if I'll use half of these, they're here just in case.  
-If anything else comes up, it'll be added here and to the beginning of the chapter it appears in.  
 **-If there are any grammar mistakes, please comment and let me know so I can fix them!-**


	3. Prologue

Prologue - Transcending Reality

Unedited  
__________________  
If you want, you may skip the prologue, but it is highly suggested that you should read it~  
__________________

“Where the hell am I?”

Earlier, I was with (b/f/n) because they dragged me to go to the movies with them in (city name), but after that we got separated. Now, I’m lost somewhere in this city and the sun has almost completely set.

“C’mon, (b/f/n), where are you?” I mumbled out under my breath, afraid to raise my voice too much.

It was completely silent where I was at, with old crumbling buildings, the road full of cracks and potholes, and the sidewalk uneven and broken. I reached for my phone again and pulled it out of my coat pocket. I sighed dejectedly as I saw that it was still dead, same as it was hours before. So now I’m lost in this city, looking for (b/f/n) who’s probably also lost and looking for me, with no way to contact them; I couldn’t even find a payphone! What city doesn’t have payphones anymore? I’m not about to go into one of those creepy buildings and try to use a phone in there- who knows what’s lurking in the shadows in them. I pulled my jacket closer to my body and shivered as the wind picked up, tossing your (h/c) locks around.

‘Shit, the sun’s almost down. It’s gonna get even colder, but I have to find (b/f/n),’ I thought to myself.

Suddenly, two loud guns shots fired off nearby, startling me.

“Shit! Were those gun shots?! Fuck, I gotta get out of here!” I started frantically sprinting down the sidewalk when I heard more shots fired, but this time even closer. “Shit,” I hissed under my breath.

I could feel myself getting tired due to the fatigue of looking for my friend all day. Knowing I wouldn’t be able to run for much farther, I quickly ducked into a nearby building. Well, “ducked” wouldn’t be the correct way to word that; it was more of a “ramming-my-shoulder-into-the-door-so-it-gave-way-and-entered,” so basically breaking and entering. Hearing even more shots even closer, seemingly right outside the building, I quickly dropped to the floor, wishing it was over soon. A few minutes passed before my breathing, which I hadn’t noticed had sped up before, had calmed and the adrenaline’s affect had worn off. Cautiously, I stood up, not trusting that whoever had the gun was completely gone yet, even though I didn’t hear any more shots.

Taking in the sight of my surroundings, I noticed that I had run into a rusty old warehouse of sorts, parts of the walls and roof beginning to fracture and crumble away. Looking back to where I had entered, the door swayed back and forth slightly, probably because I had broken the rusted lock when I had rammed myself against the door.

“Whoops,” I mumbled out before walking further into the warehouse, not wanting to leave yet, so I might as well explore.

By now, it was completely dark in the ware house, meaning the sun had probably completely sunk below the horizon. Small bits of moonlight filtered through the various cracks and holes littering the ceiling, yet my eyes had yet to adjust before I could make out anything.

“Oof!” I had just walked face first into something, “the hell?”

I raised my hand to feel what I run into, my palm being met with a smooth, cool surface, unlike anything I had felt before. It wasn’t quite a metal, as instead of the biting chill metal radiates, the coolness was refreshing, and it felt almost alive in a sense. My eyes had finally adjusted to the darkness, so I followed the structure upwards, only to be welcomed with the sight of a giant lion-shaped head. I felt my eyes widen, and I took a few steps back to take in the entirety of whatever I had run into.

“Woah…” I instinctively let out as I gazed at what seemed to be a huge, purple mecha-lion, “what is this?” Approaching it once again, I touched its leg, which I assume is what I had walked into before, before looking back up at its head. “Just what are you?” I asked to no one in particular.

The lion’s eyes suddenly lit up. I jumped back as it began to shift until its head was close to the ground and its mouth opened. I poked my head around the lion’s leg which I had jumped behind without realizing it. About a minute had passed and anything had yet to happen, so I made the stupidest choice I could have ever made in this situation-I approached it. I had gotten right up to the ramp, but still nothing happened. Deciding to go against all common sense, I went up the ramp, into the lion’s mouth. Upon entering the lion’s mouth, I was welcomed with the high-tech, cliché sci-fi designed interior. Before I had a chance to react to it, the ramp had rapidly retracted, much like a measuring tape, and the lion’s mouth snapped shut, trapping me inside.

“No going back now…” I mumbled before traveling further into the lion until I arrived at a more open area.

There was a single purple and white chair with two handles close by, perhaps for steering? There was a windshield and multiple holographic screens displaying different graphs and data, using characters and symbols that I didn’t recognize. Suspiciously eyeing the cockpit-like area, I sat down in the chair. The lion let out a low rumble, like a growl mixed with a purr, and the headlights, or whatever you’d call them, turned on, illuminating the large warehouse, almost the size of an airplane hangar. Suddenly, the lion roared and launched itself upwards, crashing through the ceiling, yet seemingly unaffected.

“HOLY SHIIIIITTTT!!!” My knuckles turned white from the strength I was using to grasp at the two handles I noticed earlier.

I continued to scream and hyperventilate as the lion continued its journey upwars. Before I could even realize what the hell I had gotten myself into, my surroundings outside the lion had already turned into stars and swirling galaxies.

“I’M IN SPACE!?” I shouted as I ogled at the sight before me.

The lion then began to move towards a blinding light. Or, was it moving towards us? I couldn’t tell. It had no distinct shape, as if time and space itself had been ripped and distorted in such a way where this anomaly was produced.

“WAIT WAIT WAIT WAIT HOLD UP!” I continued to scream nonsense as the Lion and I were engulfed by the light before everything went black.

__________________________

 

A/N: Hello everyone, I'm back with a new reader insert because I bloody fuckin' love Voltron and have been DYING to write a reader insert for it since last summer, so here we go~ Only the prologue is done so far, but the first chapter should be up within the next week.

XOXO

~Threbony


	4. I Did Not Agree to Do Any Divebombing

Unedited

_______________________

Just warning you now, but the reader won’t come in until later in the chapter. There will be mention of the reader as the paladin of the purple lion(purple rolls off the tongue better than Violet) throughout the chapter, though, and if you skip ahead, there’ll be very little content to read. So, I would suggest reading the whole thing. If you’d like to skip to where the reader actually physically appears, there’ll be a bold line, like this.

__________________________________

 

Meanwhile, on Arus:

 

The five soon-to-be-paladins had just finished getting acquainted with the Alteans and the mice, when the castle’s alarms started blaring. A holographic screen popped up, showcasing an image of a purple-themed spaceship of sorts.

“A Galra battleship has set its tracker to us!” Coran exclaimed as everyone set their sights to the center console with said hologram.

“How did they find us?” Allura walked up to the console, holding the mice in her hands.

“I’m not sure, but I bet it’s Keith’s fault,” Lance slightly sneered, crossing his arms.

“Say whatever you’ve got to say to make yourself feel better,” Keith sassed back, glaring at Lance out of the corner of his eye before full on turning to face Lance, “after getting us stuck on the other side of a wormhole!”

Lance got right up in Keith’s face, only a few inches apart, “I’ll stick you in a wormhole!”

“Stow it, cadets!” Shiro gave Lance a firm, yet gentle push away from Keith, causing Lance to throw both his arms up in the air. “This is no time to place blame; It’s time to work as a team. How long before they arrive?” Shiro finished, directing his question towards Coran.

“At their speed? Oh, well, carry the two...” Coran then seemed to try to mentally calculate the time estimate, using his fingers as aides. “I’d say probably a couple of days,” Coran answered with a slightly unsure cadence.

“Good. Let them come!” Allura firmly exclaimed, her demeanor filled with determination. “By the time they get here, we will have allied with the missing paladin, the six of you will have reformed Voltron, and together, we will destroy Zarkon’s empire!”

The serious atmosphere was interrupted by Hunk’s sudden belch. “Sorry,” Hunk smiled sheepishly and clasped his hands together, bits of food goo around his mouth, “food goo.” Hunks stomach rumbled immediately afterwards.

“Princess, there are six of these lions,” Shiro pulled the conversation back on topic, “How are we going to find the rest? And how will we find the other paladin?”

The soon-to-be-paladins(or are they paladins now that Allura has stated that they will form Voltron? Yeah, I think that allows me to call them paladins now.) and the Alteans made their way to cockpit, or main control room, of the castle. Allura made her way towards the center pedestal, which became enveloped in a soft light blue light as soon as she stood in the center of it.

“King Alfor connected the lions to Allura’s life force,” Coran informed as he and the paladins stood a few meters away, observing what Allura was doing. “She alone is the key to the lions’ whereabouts.” A holographic map of the immediate universe sprung forth from where Allura was standing, coating the entire room with planets, constellations, and the like, made of the same light blue light as before, causing a simultaneous ‘whoa!’ to escape the mouths of the paladins.

“These are coordinates,” Pidge stated, everyone else still too awestruck to speak. Pidge raised his hand to his chin as the hologram of the planet they were on floated nearby.* “The Black Lion looks like it’s in the same location as the Blue Lion.”

“Look at your primitive synapses firing away in their little brain cage,” Coran piped in.

“Very observant,” Allura responded to Pidge’s comment, “That’s because the Black Lion is in the castle.”

“To keep the Black Lion out of Zarkon’s hands, King Alfor locked it in the castle,” Coran added. “It can only be freed if the other five lions are present.”

“As you have found, the lions choose their pilots,” Allura began to explain, “It is a mystical bond and cannot be forced. The quintessence of the pilot is mirrored in his lion. Together, they form something greater than science can explain.” Allura swiped her hand, rotating the map around. “The Black Lion is the decisive head of Voltron. It will take a pilot who is a born leader and in control at all times, someone whose men will follow without hesitation.” The map stopped spinning as the image of the Black Lion arrived in front of Shiro. “That is why, Shiro, you will pilot the Black Lion.” Shiro wore a determined look in response before Allura spun the map again. “The Green Lion has an inquisitive personality and needs a pilot of intellect and daring.” The image of the Green Lion stopped in front of Pidge. “Pidge, you will pilot the Green Lion.” Pidge smiled. “The Blue Lion-”

“Hold up, let me guess,” Lance cut Allura off, a smug look on his face, “Takes the most handsome slash best pilot of the bunch?”

Allura gave him an annoyed look before continuing. “The Yellow Lion is caring and kind.” Allura spun the map again.”Its pilot is one who puts the needs of others above his own. His heart must be mighty. As the leg of Voltron, you will lift the team up and hold them together.” The Yellow Lion’s image stopped in front of Hunk, who let out a questioning ‘hnn?’ and pointed at himself. “The Red Lion is temperamental and the most difficult to master. It’s faster and more agile than the others, but also more unstable.” Allura held the hologram of the Red Lion in her hands before tossing it towards Keith. “Its pilot needs to be someone who relies more on instincts than skill alone. Keith, you will fly the Red Lion.”

“What? This guy?” Lance questioned, disbelief evident in his tone, Keith shooting a glare in his direction.

“The Purple Lion,” Allura continued, “is a mediator and a healer of the heart, soul, and mind. More shy and sensitive than the others, it is more of a lover rather than a fighter, and has a heart with room for all.” Allura pulled up the hologram of the Purple Lion and let it float in front of her. Alura turned towards Keith. “Unfortunately, I cannot locate the Red Lion’s coordinates yet. Neither can I do so for the Purple Lion or its paladin. There must be something wrong with the castle. After 10,000 years, it might need some work.”

“Don’t worry we’ll find them soon,” Coran reassured before giving two thumbs up. “They don’t call me “The Coranic” for nothing.” He then spread his arms, “It’s because it sounds like “mechanic.” So… Coranic, mechanic.” He fiddled with his mustache. “It’s not- It doesn’t sound… exactly like it. It’s similar,” he still tried to explain. “Well in any case, we don’t need to worry too much about the Purple Lion and it’s paladin; due to its shyer nature, the Purple Lion tends to freak out a bit when its been separated from its paladin for too long or if its paladin is too far away, so it’ll go off to find its paladin on its own. Then it’ll bring the paladin back to the castle along with it! Well, I think…” Coran trailed off. Keith gave Coran a deadpan look in response before the hologram of the Red Lion roared. The paladins all let out another small ‘woah!’ as the holograms all flew above Allura.

“Once all the lions are united, you will form Voltron, the most powerful warrior ever known, the Defender of the Universe.” The holographic lions formed into Voltron as Allura finished speaking, before disappearing, allowing light from the outside to filter in once more.

“Awesome,” Lance simply put as Pidge let out another ‘woah’.

“Wait,” Hunk interjected, “Okay, we’re going to be in there and flying lions. Got that part. How do lions turn into legs? Also, is this going to be a long trip? Because I have to pee. Do you people pee?”

“We don’t have much time,” Shiro interrupted Hunk’s onslaught of questions, “Pidge and I will go after the Green Lion. Lance,” Shiro looked towards him, “you take Hunk and get the yellow one.” Lance smirked in confidence. “Keith,” Shiro put a hand on his shoulder. “You stay here. If you locate that Red Lion or the Purple Lion and its paladin, go get them.” Keith only held a serious yet determined gaze with Shiro.

“In the meantime, I’ll get this castle’s defenses ready. They’ll be sorely needed,” Allura said.

“I’ll ready a pod and load the coordinates so that you can reach the Green Lion,” Coran said, giving everyone the OK to go and find the other lions.

.                                 .                                    .

Soon, the Alteans and the paladins, besides the Purple Paladin, had all gathered in the control room after returning with the newly found lions, Lance and Hunk groaning in pain on their way in.

“You made it,” Allura said happily, clasping her hands together, allowing the control pedestals to retreat back into the floor.

“Yeah, just barely,” Lance rolled his shoulder in an attempt to alleviate the soreness, “That was a nightmare. I almost puked out there. I felt like Hunk!”

“Think how I felt,” everyone turned towards Hunk as he spoke up. “I am Hunk!”

“Yeah,” Pidge turned towards Shiro, a knowing smile on his face. “We had a tough time, too.”

“Did we find the Red and Purple Lions yet? Or anything about the Purple Paladin?” Shiro asked.

“Nothing on the Purple Lion or its paladin yet, I’m afraid. As for the Red Lion Allura just located it,” Coran replied. “There’s a bit of good new and bad news. The good new is, the Red Lion’s nearby,” Coran pulled on his mustache again. “The bad news is,” he folded his arms, “it’s on board that Galra ship now orbiting Arus. But wait, good new again. We’re Arus!”

“They’re here already?” Shiro took a quick step forward in panic.

“Yes. Guess my calculations were a bit off,” Coran responded before raising up some of his fingers again. “Finger counting- It’s more of an art than a science.” The large holographic screen behind him began to fizzle and waver. “Hmm?” Everyone turned towards the screen to see a purple alien with a single cybernetic eye.

“Princess Allura,” the alien on the screen started, “this is Commander Sendak of the Galra Empire.” A small gasp was heard from most likely Hunk. “I come on behalf of Emperor Zarkon, Lord of the Known Universe. I am here to confiscate the lions. Turn them over to me, or I will destroy your planet.” The screen reverted to black and disappeared.

Everyone blankly stared at where the screen was before Shiro spoke up, “Alright. Let’s not panic.”

“Not panic?” Hunk responded. “The scary purple alien thing is driving his battleship toward us.” Hunk faced Shiro and raised up for fingers. “We only have four lions.”

“Technically, only three working lions,” Pidge interrupted.

Hunk patted Pidge twice on the shoulder before walking past him, “That’s right. Thank you, Pidge.” Hunk started to wave his arms around in panicked and worried gestures, “Three working lions and a castle that’s, like, 10,000 years old.”

“Actually, it’s 10,600 years old,” Coran pointed out and proudly adjusted his collar. “You see, it was built by my grandfather-”

Hunk put a finger up to Coran to shush him and continued, “Thanks, Coran. Thank you for that.” Hunk turned to face the others while Coran looked annoyed and upset at being interrupted, even though he interrupted Hunk first, “See? Now is the perfect time to panic!”

“Wait!” Everyone’s eyes turned to Allura, “this castle has a particle barrier we can activate.”

“Girl, you’ve already activated my par-”

“Lance!” Shiro interrupted Lance before he could continue, giving him a stern glare.

A hologram sprung up, showing a diagram of the Galra battleship, the canon highlighted in red. “The particle barrier won’t hold Sendak’s ion cannon forever,” Coran explained and brought his hand to his chin in the cliche “thinking” gesture. “The Galra technology must have advanced since we fought them last.”

“Panic now?”

“No,” Shiro quickly answered Hunk, “We’ve just got to figure out our plan of action, and figure it out quickly.”

“I say we pop through a wormhole and live to fight another day,” Lance suggested.

“I second that,” Hunk agreed without hesitation. “Yes. We tried to find all the lions, right? We gave it the old college try. Couldn’t do it. We only have three. We can’t form Voltron. I mean, I guess we could form a snake? Or a worm! To go through that hole, Lance, that you were talking about!”

“Then it’s settled,” Lance started walking towards Allura, “Allura, you ride with me,” he tried to say suavely. “One of you take the old guy,” Lance quickly changed to a plain, dismissive voice, causing Coran’s face to turn red with rage.

“We can’t just abandon Arus!” Pidge interjected. “The Galra will keep destroying planets and capturing prisoners until we stop them.”

“Okay, if we run, then maybe Sendak will follow us and leave this planet alone, like when we left Earth,” Hunk compromised. “We form this snake-worm thingamajig and we,” Hunk hissed and used his hands to imitate a flying snake, “out of here.”

“Sendak could destroy the planet then come after us anyway,” Keith pointed out, “staying is our only option.”

“Here’s an option: Shut your quiznak,” Lance made a zipping motion with his fingers as if to zip Keith’s mouth shut. Allura and Coran’s jaws dropped; their faces looked as if their souls had left them.

“I don’t think you’re using that word correctly,” Keith said, taking on a more aggressive tone.

“What do you know, Mullet?!” Lance leaned in towards Keith. Keith leaned closer in retaliation, both glaring with enough intensity that you could almost see sparks forming between them.

“We’re staying!” Keith.

“Leaving!” Lance.

“Staying!” Pidge.

“Snake!” Hunk.

“Guys, stop!” Shiro. Pidge and Hunk were glaring at each other, and Lance and Keith were quite literally butting heads with each other before they all broke away and annoyedly glared at their counterpart when Shiro raised his voice. Shiro was in the middle of them, “Princess Allura, these are your Lions. You’ve dealt with the Galra Empire before. You know what we’re facing better than any of us. What do you think is the best course of action?”

“I… I-I don’t know,” Allura stuttered and looked down.

“Perhaps your father can help,” Coran said, a sad, but caring look in his eyes.

“My father?” Allura and Coran proceeded to walk through the doorway and down the hall, leaving the paladins in the control room.

After a moment of silence, Shiro spoke up, “While we’re waiting, we should probably think of ways to find the Purple Lion and its paladin before the Galra find them.”

“I’m sure that they’ll both come straight to me,” Lance said, “After all, who could resist these looks?”

Keith raised a hand to his forehead and sighed. “Idiot…”

“Oh, like you could do any better, Mullet head?” LAnce shot towards Keith.

“Yeah, like maybe when Allura gets back, she’ll know how to contact the Purple Lion,” Keith shot back.

“Whatever. If the paladin turns out to be a cute girl, I bet she’ll like me better than you, anyways,” Lance replied.

Shiro put a hand on Keith’s shoulder and shook his head, giving the message to just leave it be as it it. Keith crossed his arms and sighed, taking Shiro’s advice.

Allura entered the room again, her hair tied up in a bun, wearing a spacesuit instead of a dress, “You five paladins were brought here for a reason, and I’m positive the sixth paladin will be here shortly, as well. The Voltron Lions are meant to be piloted by you and you alone.” Allura took a few steps forward. “We must fight and keep fighting until we defeat Zarkon. It is our destiny. Voltron is the universe’s only hope. We are the universe’s only hope.”

“We’re with you, princess,” Shiro replied for everyone, determination written all over his face.

________________________

Soon everyone was brought to a smaller circular room with six different castle-blue tubes on the wall, each containing a space suit. They were white with colored accents that matched the colors of the lions. Left to right, blue, red, black, purple, green, yellow.

“Your suits of armor,” Allura stated.

“Cool.” Lance.

“Outstanding.” Shiro.

“Nice.” Keith.

“Oh, neat!” Pidge.

“Hmm…” Hunk. He began to try and guesstimate the size of the suit to himself. He put his hands up to the width of the suit, “Mmm…” Then put that width up to himself, “hmm.” He looked at his suit dejectedly.

“Princess, are you sure about this?” Coran asked and tugged on his mustache again. “They aren’t exactly the best and brightest the universe has to offer.”

“No, but they’re all we’ve got.”

“Boys, it’s time to suit up,” Shiro said, a lighter tone to his voice, placing his hands on his hips.

Soon everyone had their suits of armor on, the purple suit still left inside it’s pod. Allura unlocked a weapon case before speaking.

“The bayard is the traditional weapon of the paladins of Voltron.” Four of the horseshoe-shaped weapons rose and floated towards the paladin that shared the same color. “It takes a distinct shape for each paladin.”

“Woah-ah!” Hunk yelled as his bayard turned into a large gun as soon as he grabbed it, almost dropping it.

Keith let a small ‘heh’ as his bayard turned into a sword and he activated his shield.

“Haha, whoo!” Lance’s turned into a gun and he immediately started aiming it at things.

Pidge’s turned into a triangular dagger and he swung it around a couple times.

“Aw, you got a cute little bayard- AHHH!” Lance snidely remarked before screaming and falling over as Pidge electrocuted him.

“Yeah, it is pretty cute.”

“Shiro, I’m afraid your bayard was lost with its paladin,” Allura apologized.

“I guess I’ll just have to make do.”

________________________________

Back in the control room, Allura brought up the diagram of the Galra ship again. “You’ll need to retrieve the Red Lion from Sendak’s ship.”

“That’s a pretty big ship,” Keith began, “How are we gonna know where the Red Lion is?”

“Well, it’s not a matter of “we.” It’s a matter of “you,”” Pidge said to Keith.

“Pidge is right,” Hunk raised his hand in reassurance, “Once we get you in, you’ll be able to feel its presence and track it down. Hunk continued to use different hand motions and gestures to try and explain his words.

“Yeah,” Lance spoke up, “You know how you felt that crazy energy while we were in the desert?”

“Yeah. You made fun of me for that.”

“And I’m proud of that, but turns out it’s exactly like that mumbo-jumbo.”

“Keith,” now Allura spoke, “remember, the Red Lion is extremely temperamental. You’ll have to earn its respect.”

Keith nodded and Shiro placed a hand on his shoulder, “All right. Here’s our plan of attack. The Galra Empire knows about the Blue and Yellow Lion, but they don’t know we have the Green Lion, too. Hunk, Lance, you’ll act as a decoy by pretending to give yourselves up. While Sendak is distracted, Keith, Pidge, and I will sneak onto the ship in the Green Lion. Keith and I will find the Red Lion while Pidge guards our exit. Hunk, Lance, find some way to take down that ion cannon.”

Soon everyone headed out and the mission began.

_______________________________

“Pidge, what’s your ETA?” Lance asked.

“We’re in,” Pidge whispered before he, Keith, and Shiro began to head down the hallways in search of the Red Lion.

As they continued down a hallway, Shiro suddenly stopped and gasped, “I’ve been here before,” Keith turned back to look at Shiro and Pidge walked closer. “After I was taken by the Galra cruiser off Kerberos, they brought us here.”

“So, that means your other crewmembers, they might be held captive here.” Pidge took on a desperate tone, “We… We’ve got to rescue them.”

Shiro cringed, not liking the choice he was about to make, “Pidge, we don’t have time. We have to get the Red Lion and get back to Arus.”

“But we can’t just leave prisoners here!” Pidge exclaimed, desperation now clear in his voice.

“Look, no one understands that more than me, but, in war, we have to make hard choices,” Shiro looked down at Pidge in empathy, just as upset as Pidge was before taking a firm tone once again, “Now, let’s get moving.” He and Keith began to walk away.

“No!” Shiro and Keith stopped and look back to Pidge, who lowered his head. “Commander Holt is my father. He and my brother were the ones on the Kerberos Mission with you.”

“Commander Holt is your father?”

“Yes. I’ve been searching everywhere for him and my brother, and I’m not going to give up looking when I’m this close. I won’t!” Pidge turned around to walk the other way.

“I’m coming with you,” Shiro replied not a second later, halting Pidge in his tracks.

“What?” Keith asked, a bit dumbfounded.

“I remember where the prisoners are held.” He looked back at Keith, “Keith, you go find the Red Lion.”

“By myself?”

“Minor change of plans. You’ll be fine,” Shiro reassured. “Just remember, patience yields focus. So-” Shiro was cut off by the sound of doors opening down the hall. “Run!” They all took off- Keith going one way, Pidge and Shiro the other.

Keith ran for a while before skidding to a halt at the front of a locked doorway with a glowing purple symbol on it, “Great. Now, which way?”

He quickly ran to the right as footsteps approached from the left. No matter where he went, he always somehow managed to end up at a dead end.

“Haaaarrgh!” Keith groaned in annoyance as he ended up at another one of those doors. “You’ve got to be kidding me!” Breathing heavily, he closed his eyes and tried to concentrate. “Patience yields focus...Gotcha,” he turned around and ran back, finally sensing the whereabouts of the Red Lion.

He entered the hangar where the Red Lion was being stored and ran up to its barrier.

“Bingo,” He touched the barrier, but it didn’t let him through. “Let’s get out of here. Open up.” He blinked when it still didn’t respond. “It’s me. Keith. Your buddy.” No response. “It’s me! Keith! Your-” he took a breath as he began to get more aggravated. “I am your paladin!” he carefully annunciated as he knocked on the forcefield before laser beams began to shoot at him.

He quickly activated his shield and turned his head to face the lion, “I’m bonding with you!” The shots started to come more rapidly. “Hey! Come on! We’re connected!” He pulled out his bayard and ran at the sentries attacking him, “You’re not getting this lion!” He cut done a couple before he was shot, the force pushing him to the ground.

Quickly, he closed up his helmet and hit the button that caused the hangar to open up, the sentries getting sucked into space. Keith tried to hold on, but wasn’t able to as pieces of scrap metal hit him in the face, removing his grip from the ship. He screamed and began breathing heavily as he began spinning out of control, falling through space. Suddenly, the Red Lion grabbed Keith with its mouth and flew away.

__________________________________

Lance was still distracting the Galra fighter ships as Hunk was trying to blast through the forcefield, still unsuccessful.

“Hunk, have you gotten through that shield yet? ‘Cause I could really use some help here!” Lance exclaimed as he continued to dodge and fire lasers.

“Not yet, this forcefield is close to undistructabl- gah!” Hunk quickly dodged and incoming laser, “Plus, it’s kinda hard to keep pounding on it when you’re surrounded by enemies trying to kill you with lasers.”

“Well, try and hurry it up, will ya- woAH!!!”

Suddenly, both the Yellow and Blue Lion were shoved away from the battlecruiser by a power tremor of sorts. They both turned to see the Galra ship’s force field deactivate, as well as a certain Purple Lion floating away from the ship, having seemingly headbutted the force field with enough strength to deal the final blow to deactivate it.

“Is that the Purple Lion?!” Hunk asked.

“I think it is. Anyway, hurry! Before the force field’s back up!” Lance shouted in reply.

“Mm,” Hunk hummed and nodded in agreement, not that anyone could see him nodding, and he quickly rammed his Lion into the ion cannon. Soon after that, the Red and Green Lion reappeared.

“You guys made it!” Hunk happily said.

“Kitty rose has left the stage!” Pidge exclaimed with the same level of enthusiasm.

“And you’d never guess who we ran into,” Lace smugly stated.

“Lance, what are you talking about?” Keith questioned/

“The one and only Purple Lion of course,” He proudly replied.

“The Purple Lion?” Shiro asked, hop in his voice.

“Yep,” Lance said, before his tone dropped to one of uncertainty, “although, it doesn’t seem to be moving anymore.”

“What do you mean “it isn’t moving?”” Keith asked.

“Well you see, it kinda rammed itself into the force field to break it.” Lance replied yet again.

“Lance, Hunk, I’m gonna need you two to help tow it back to the castle with us,” Shiro told them

“We’re on it. C’mon, Hunk! Let’s get that Lion!” Lance enthusiastically exclaimed as he and Hunk caged the Purple Lion between their Lions, causing it to move with them as they traveled back to the castle.

_______________________________

Meanwhile, with you:

I was rudely awakened by the sound of alarms and sirens going off and a prominent red light shining in my face. When I finally came to my senses, I found myself in a chair of sorts, with holographic screens around me and a window showing a huge ship in space in front of me.

“What the hell is going on!” I shouted to myself, noticing the ship getting bigger. Wait. It wasn’t getting bigger, we were getting closer, and fast! “Wait, wait, wait, wait waIIITTTT!!!” I yelled, not putting sentences together as I realized that I was in a nosedive straight towards the huge ship! I grabbed what I assumed to be the controls and tried to pull back, but they wouldn’t budge. “SHIIIIITTT!!!” I braced myself and waited for the impact to come, as with all the sirens going off, it didn’t seem like the ship I was in, or at least I assume it’s a ship, was accustomed to dive-bombing, meaning there were no bombs. I flew forward in my seat, slingshotting back into my seat due to the seat belt. My sight began to become blurry again, the sound around me becoming muted, before everything went black once again.

 

 

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*- remember, Pidge is not yet revealed to be a girl in the show at this point.

 

A/N: This took longer to upload than expected, but my laptop broke, so whatcha gonna do? Well, with this new laptop, everything should be A-OK~ Anyways I hope you’ve enjoyed this chapter~

Word Count: 4450

 

XOXO

~Threbony


	5. I Was Kidnapped by Space Power Rangers

Unedited

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The first thing I felt was coldness, true icy bitterness. It felt it in my toes, my fingers, then a shiver running up my spine. It wasn’t cold enough where I was completely numb, for I could still feel everything, but it was freezing enough that it was hard to move. Only being able to barely crack my eyes open, and a small involuntary twitch of my fingers, I was greeted with a cool blue, not light enough to be an icy blue, but not dark enough to remind me of an ocean or sadness. In my peripherals was only an off-white color, but that could just be from the light refracting off the blue.  Then I was greeted by the muted sound of moving machinery and the sudden rush of gas colliding with a new atmosphere of a warmer temperature, which I was sure of for I could feel the warm air suddenly caress my nose and cheeks, blowing my (h/l) (h/c) locks behind my ears. Then the sudden shock of pain as my nose met the ground. I had fallen without even realizing it. I hissed in pain, as the suddenness of it all made me completely regain my senses, but it was still hard to move. It took a few seconds before I was able to sit up and rub my nose in attempt to soothe the pain.

“Was I drugged or somethin’? ‘Cause if I was, I swear I’m gonna murder somebody,” I murmured to myself, beginning to stand up. Well, I was going to stand up until my knees buckled underneath me and I fell over again. “AAH-” my scream was cut off when I hit the ground, the wind getting knocked out of me.

Well great. Not only do I have a bruised nose, possibly even fractured, but now my shoulder is gonna be bruised too. Sitting up while groaning in pain, I tenderly rubbed my shoulder in attempt to soothe it as well, even though I knew that it wouldn’t do anything. Hearing what sounded like footsteps running closer to where I was at, my head snapped to the direction they were coming from, seeing what seemed like some sort of door? I’m gonna assume it’s a door. I jumped a little as the “door” suddenly slid open, a group of people wearing white suits with each having a different color for accents, as well as two other people(?) wearing different types of clothing than the suits the first five people were wearing, plus they had longer ears, similar to an elf’s.

‘Shit, were they the ones that drugged me? What are they gonna do? Did they already experiment on me without me knowing? Ah, shit. Ah, fuck; what do I do?’ I thought to myself, no doubt sweating bullets.

“Hey there. The name’s Lance, pilot extraordinaire, and the most handsome of the paladins,” the one with tanned skin and brown hair, wearing the suit with blue accents said to me as he came up to me and gently held my hand in his.

“Ahhh...Ummmm...Uhhh…” I was left just blandly stuttering, but on the inside I was panicking and screaming in my thoughts. ‘AAAHHHH ABORT ABORT THE KIDNAPPERS/DRUGGERS HAVE ARRIVED AAAAAHHHHH- WHAT DO I DO?! WHAT IF THEY’RE ENEMIES?! BUT THEY LOOK LIKE SPACE POWER RANGERS, SO CAN THEY REALLY BE ENEMIES?! NNNNNNNNNN-AAAHHHH?! Ok, calm down (y/n), breath in and out. In and out. Ok. We’re calm. Now what do we do? Ummmm…. OH OH OH, let’s pretend we can’t speak English! Then we can get sort of close to them and hear all their conversations and know what they’re up to, because they won’t realize that we’re eavesdropping because they don’t think we understand English! That way, we can learn if they’re enemies or not! Perfect! Genius! It’s foolproof! Why am I using ‘we’? There’s only one of me… Oh well. Operation: I can’t speak English is a go! Wait, how long have I been spacing out? Shoot, I’ve just been staring at this dude! Quick speak French or something!’

“Oh, have you been captivated by my charming looks already?” The one in blue asked as I was spaced out, but I was too busy panicking to register that he said anything. All they saw was me, a stuttering mess.

“Um, Lance? I think you broke them…” The one in yellow said to the one in blue.

“What? Nah, I’m pretty sure it’s because she’s stunned by my handsome face,” the one in blue said with a smouldering grin. The one in black walked up to me with a worried look on his face, but I still didn’t notice because I was still in my thoughts.

“Hey, are you alright?” the one in black asked me.

“Je ne comprende pas votre LANGUE!”* I hurriedly stuttered out, partially screaming out ‘langue’ because a different person was right in front of me, and I was not expecting it. They all stared at me blankly for a moment before the one in green came up to me.

“Parlez-vous anglais?”** the green one asked me.

“Ah…” I stared at them with a blank stare on my face. ‘Shit, they know French! And I’m not fluent enough in any other languages! Mission failed- might as well speak English because if they’re better at french than I am, I’m screwed.’ I thought dejectedly to myself.

“Um…hi there...it’s nice to meet you? Heheh…” I said, well more like asked since I’m nervous as fuck, finishing it off with a nice sheepish laugh. ‘Please don’t be mad at me,’ I inwardly pleaded.

“Oh good, you speak english. For a minute there I was worried that I’d have to talk to you in French,” the green one said.

“Woah Pidge, you speak French?!” The blue one exclaimed.

“No, that was about as much as I know, with some bits and pieces here and there,” Pidge, as I now assume is their name, replied.

‘What?! I could’ve continued to pretend I didn’t understand them! Ah dammit, (y/n), you’ve foiled your own master plan,’ I thought to myself. Realizing I was still sitting on the floor from when I fell, I began to stand up.

“So…” I began to say, “not to be rude, but, who are you all and where exactly are we?”

  
  


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*I don’t understand your language!

**Do you speak English?

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**A/N: Hey sorry about the hiatus, but enjoy this sneak peak of the chapter to come soon~ Spring break starts 3/30, so perhaps sometime around then? Ooh, and don’t forget about the bonus chapter that will come out after the rest of this chapter from the Paladins’ point of view~ ;) Thanks for stickin’ with me. Till next time cuties~**

 

**XOXO**

**~Threbony**


	6. Bonus Chapter 1

Unedited

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            For everyone who’s new to my style of writing, allow me to explain what bonus chapters are. They’re basically points within the story when you, the reader, are unconscious or not present, meaning that it’ll be part of the story told from the other characters’ experiences or views, if that makes sense. Or it’ll be the other characters’ thoughts and such, which you technically can’t hear, so it still counts. In short, it’s just the paladins’ point of view during specific points of the story. In other words, bonus chapters help create DRAMATIC IRONY. Sorry to everyone who hates literature class and I just caused a PTSD flashback.

 Hope you enjoy~

 

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            After having damaged the galra cruiser and made their escape, the paladins had successfully carried the purple lion back to Arus (minus the one incident where Lance had veered away from the purple lion to avoid colliding with an asteroid, causing Hunk to accidentally push the purple lion head first into the asteroid, but we don’t talk about that).

 

The paladins stepped out of their respective lions, besides Shiro who was in the green lion with Pidge, and began to approach the purple lion which was now sitting upright, yet no forcefield was blocking their way. Shiro stopped in front of the purple lion and removed his helmet, the other paladins following suit. Shiro takes a single additional step forward before beginning to speak.

“Is your paladin with you? We want to make sure they’re alright,” Shiro pauses, waiting for an answer of some sort, only to be greeted with silence. “Please, we’d only like to help them, so will you let us in?”  There is a moment of silence after Shiro speaks before the lion leans down and opens its jaw, allowing a ramp to extend from its mouth to the ground, just like the blue lion had when the paladins first encountered it on Earth.

A small smile appears on Shiro’s face as a small sign of thanks before he begins to walk up the ramp into the purple lion. Lance and Pidge follow close behind, both beaming in excitement, though for different reasons; Pidge’s being so excited about the new and advanced technology, curious about if there’s anything different between the purple lion and the others, and Lance’s being he’s excited to find out if the purple paladin is a cute girl, because he hope to dear lord that they are. A nervous Hunk trails behind the three, muttering his worries under his breath.

“Are we really sure about this? If it’s a good idea? I mean, what if they’re an enemy waiting to ambush us? Or worse, some kind of alien monster about to eat us alive after wrapping us up like human burritos?! Oh, I knew this was a bad idea!” Everyone just kind of ignored Hunk’s nervous fretting and continued forward. Finally, a cautious Keith was bringing up the rear, bayard in hand, ready to strike at anything aboard that might be a threat.

 

Barely a minute has passed before Shiro enters the cockpit of the Lion, approaching the seat in the center. Rounding the side, he sees what appears to be a fellow human, a girl at that, roughly around (age) years old. She had (h/l) (h/c) hair and (s/t) skin, and seemed to be wearing fairly casual clothes, along with a (color) jacket that had a jagged rip at the hem, reaching from the bottom of the hem to about two inches(about 5cm) above it. Her eyes were closed and she didn’t appear to be moving. Shiro quickly ran up to her and put two fingers up against where her pulse would be on her (neck/wrist)*. He lets out a sigh of relief when he feels her pulse beneath his fingertips, then gently places his hands on her shoulders instead.

“Hey, are you alright?” He tries to ask her, not noticing Lance entering the room, approaching him and the girl. Not getting a response, Shiro carefully brings his arms under her knees and her upper back, about to lift her up and carry her bridal style.

“Woah, she’s a total knock-out!**” Lance exclaimed, now next to Shiro, looking at the girl as Shiro lifts her up and out of her seat.

            “Lance.” Shiro gives Lance a stern look, effectively stopping Lance from making any more comments. The rest of the paladins file in immediately afterwards, noticing the girl in Shiro’s arms.

            “Is she the paladin of the purple lion? What happened to her?” Pidge asked.

            “It seems she is the paladin, but I’m not sure what happened to her,” Shiro replied, “We can only hope that it was the initial shock that caused her to faint and not something more serious.” Shiro then carries the girl out of the lion, bringing her towards the castle, the other paladins in tow.

            “Shiro, are you sure it’s a good idea to bring her inside the castle?” Keith asks, holding a suspicious gaze on the girl. “She could be a threat.”

            “That’s a risk we’ll have to take,” Shiro replied. “She may be a threat, but she may also not be. What matters is that she may be hurt and we have to help her. Not to mention, she’s now our teammate as a paladin of Voltron.” Shiro says, his face serious at first before melting into a reassuring smile when he shifts his gaze over to Keith.

            “Plus, she appears to be human too, so I doubt she’s a threat because how many humans are this far out in space, let alone fighting for the Galra Empire?” Pidge asks rhetorically, a confident smile adorning her face. Keith just sighs in reluctant acceptance, and finally puts away his bayard.

            Stepping into the Castle of Lions, the paladins met up with Allura and Coran. Allura’s face lit up but soon morphed into a concerned look when she saw the girl in Shiro’s arms.

            “Coran, can you get one of the cryopods ready?” Shiro asked.

            “Already on it!” Coran replied, already halfway down the hall.

            “Is this the purple paladin? Is she hurt?” Allura asked.

            “Yeah, we believe she the paladin, but as for her condition, we’re not sure yet,” Shiro replied in a serious tone, a concerned look on his face mirroring Allura’s.

            “We better get her to a pod quickly then,” Allura stated. “Let’s go.”

            The paladins and Allura quickly made their way down to the med bay, welcomed by the sight of Coran next to an open cryopod, ready for use.

            “Thanks, Coran,” Shiro sincerely said before gently placing the girl in the cryopod, stepping back as he and the others watched it close. Coran went to the console, looking over the data he began to receive from the cryopod on the girl’s condition.

            “Alright then, give it a couple of vargas and she’ll be up and ready to go!” Coran said enthusiastically.

            “Then all we have to do is wait,” Shiro said before Allura spoke up right afterwards.

            “In the meantime, you can all get to the training deck. It’s time we start getting you ready to fit the title of being a paladin.” She said, hand on her hips and her lips drawing into a determined smirk.

 

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*You can check a person’s pulse from certain points on their neck or their wrist, but for some people, such as myself, it is near impossible to feel my pulse at my wrist, so here you can choose whatever works best.

**Do people use the term “Knock-out” to describe someone anymore? Or is that term too old? Well, I still use it and for those of you who are unfamiliar with it, it is used to describe someone who is drop-dead gorgeous. I hope you know the expression “drop-dead gorgeous” or else I’m gonna feel REALLY old.

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**A/N: Woooo, first bonus chapter of the fic! And 1200 words at that. Well, it isn’t much but I hope that you enjoyed it all the same~ Til next time cuties!**

 

**XOXO**

 

**~Threbony**


	7. So, Aliens... At least I get to be a Space Power Ranger Now

Unedited

         “I’m Pidge,” the one in green once introduced themselves, “and that’s Shiro,” Pidge pointed at the one in black, “Hunk,” yellow, “Keith,” red, “you already know Lance-” Pidge was cut off by Lance

        “But you can call me yours~” Pidge ignored him.

        “And those two are Coran and Allura,” Pidge pointed to the two people with… um… face paint and elf ears? Are they cosplaying or something? Is everyone here cosplaying and I’m just being left out? At least I know the space power rangers’ names though. “Currently, we’re on planet Arus.”

        Woah. Hold on. What. When the hell did I get on another planet? Scratch that, HOW the hell did I get on another planet with living breathing people nonetheless? Okay, yeah, some kind of robot lion took me here, but that’s not what I’m trying to as- it’s just, well, y’know, umm.. Why the hell am I trying to justify my own questions to myself? I know what I’m trying to ask so why am I trying to put it in words? Oh shoot. They’re all staring at me like I’m crazy. Again. Congratulations (y/n), you did it again: making people think you’re crazy. Which you probably are because you keep inner-monologuing and you have conversations with yourself. Agh, never mind that, just respond to them before they think they completely broke you!

        “Arus, huh? I’ve never heard of it. Where exactly is it? In relation to Earth, I mean.” I asked them, trying to sound calm, but I’m pretty sure my faced had completely blanched so they knew I was panicking.

        “So you’re human then. Well that clears things up a bit,” I heard Pidge mutter the last part under their breath. “And to answer your question, it very far away, to put it lightly. It’s completely out of our solar system.”

        “Okay then… And yeah, I’m human. I mean look at me; what else could I be?”

        “Well, it was a possibility that you could have been an alien with human-like features, like Allura and Coran,” Pidge gestured to them.

        “Wait, they’re aliens?” I asked, unsure I could even comprehend what I was saying.

        “Yep,” Pidge nodded as they spoke.

        “…hooooo-boy. Hold on…I just need to, um, sit down for a minute,” I unsteadily took a seat on the floor of whatever room I was in. “Okay, let’s just set some things straight and make sure I’m not going crazy. So you five are humans and these other two are aliens and we’re all on some planet a long way from home.” Pidge nodded in affirmation. “Okay then. Alright. Perfectly normal. Yeah. Okay, time for more questions. 1)Why are we all here? 2)Why are you all dressed like that? I gestured to their power ranger-esque outfits.

        “Please, allow me to explain,” Allura stepped up to answer my questions. “As Pidge already stated, I am Princess Allura of Altea.”

        ‘Altea? Isn’t that the country that Marth is from? Y’know, from the Fire Emblem series? I’m pretty sure he was human though… must be a different Altea,’ I thought to myself.

        “And you are the paladin of the Purple Lion. You along with the other five paladins-“ She gestured to the group of humans-“ will work together to form Voltron, defender of the universe.”

        “Sooo, what’s a Voltron?” I asked unsure.

        “It’s basically a giant robot made up of the six lions,” Pidge answered. I stared at them blankly. “When we first made contact with the blue lion, we all had a vision of what Voltron was; didn’t you experience the same?”

        “Ummm, no?” I stated more as a question, unsure myself. “These past few, what has it been, hours? Days? Are all a blur to me so I don’t remember much.” I said. ‘Not to mention I’ve been unconscious for so much of it,’ I thought.

        “If you don’t mind me asking, how did you come across the purple lion?” Allura asked.

        “Let’s see now… Well, I heard gunshots so I kinda freaked and ran for cover in some kind of warehouse I think? And it was just sitting there. Next thing I know, I’m in space and heading straight for a ship of sorts and then I wake up here,” I answered truthfully.

        “Perhaps due to your state of panic, the lion had decided to show you Voltron at a later time, prioritizing you safety,” Allura hypothesized. “Let’s get you back to the purple lion and perhaps then you’ll experience the same visions the other paladins had.”

        Shiro now approached me and stuck out his hand, I assume to help me up off the ground. Reaching out with my (s/c) hand, I grasped his and he pulled me up. “Thanks,” I smiled at him and he smiled back in response. Allura led the way out of the room we were in, all of us trailing behind.

        “First, we’re going to get your armor and bayard, the traditional weapon of the paladins,” Allura said while glancing back at me.

        ‘Wait so, if I’m the purple paladin, assuming I’m purple because my lion’s purple, does that mean I’ll get to be the purple space power ranger? Aw, hell yeah. But, was there even a purple power ranger? I know there was a pink one, but I don’t think there was a purple one…’

        I jumped a bit from the sudden weight of a hand on my left shoulder, startling me out of my thoughts. I heard a small chuckle following my jump, only to see it was Shiro to the left of me who put his hand on my shoulder. “Welcome to the team,” he said to me, a warm smile on his face. I smiled back, but still a bit unsteady with nervousness.

        “Nice to be a part of it…I think…that’s a good thing, right?” I asked him.

        “Yes, that is if you want to be a part of it,” he replied, that warm, reassuring smile still gracing his features.

        “Of course I do! I’m just, well, still a bit confused about everything. It’s a lot to take in.” ‘Plus, who doesn’t want to be a space power ranger?’

        “I’m sure you’ll adjust in no time at all. Don’t forget that we’ll be here for you, too.” Shiro reassured me.

        “Thanks, I mean it. It’s nice to know that someone’s got my back in all this crazy mess.” Shiro smiled at me and removed his hand from my shoulder.

        “Here we are,” I heard Coran say from in front of us, drawing my attention back to the front.

        “Now, let’s get you into your paladin armor,” Allura said, walking in, me following right behind.

 

 

**A/N: Yo, have you guys ever realized the irony of Shiro's name? Shiro means white in Japanese, but he's the black paladin. Only me? Okay then. Disregard that. Alright, we’re back on track now baby with another dialogue heavy chapter. Anyways, from now on, I plan on making chapters shorter, that way I can publish them more frequently and in shorter intervals of waiting between chapters. But anyways, short little bonding moment with space dadddddddd. I’m not experienced with fluff whatsoever, but I’ll try to incorporate as much as possible. I mean c’mon, it’s a reader insert. There’s gotta be a ton of fluff especially with this beautiful cast of characters. Well, until next time!**

**XOXO**

**~Threbony**


	8. What Do You Mean My "Bayard isn't a Light Saber?!"

Unedited

 

 

I followed Allura into a room with six tube-like structures lined up against the round wall, all of which were empty except one. Allura led me to said ‘tube,’ which was just right of center, that held a white set of armor identical to the sets the other paladins were wearing except with purple accents instead.

 ‘Aha! So I was right! I am purple. As in, I’m the purple paladin. I’m not the noun purple; that would mean that I’d have no physical shape- I’d just be an idea. Ok. Stop it (y/n). You’ve had enough of a psychological acid trip to last you a life time already, no need to add to it and finally make your brain implode. We are trying to survive here- why the hell am I referring to myself as we? I’ve been over this before with myself so why do you keep doing it? I guess I can be considered ‘we’ because I’m having a conversation with myself, meaning that it is me and myself. So maybe it’s grammatically correct? Ah screw it, a conversation means there are two sides, even if it is one person doing both sides, therefore using ‘we’ is totally justified… Dammit (y/n), you’ve done it again- inner monologuing too long. I don’t think they’ve noticed yet so just pretend that you were paying attention to whatever Allura was telling you, capiche*?’

“This is your armor. Don it and then we shall get to your bayard,” Allura said right after I decided to pay attention again. Thank goodness she didn’t ask a question or quiz me or something.

.                                      .                                        .

‘Okay, I think I’ve got this armor on right. I certainly hope so. Pants-check. Breastplate, including arm things-check. Boots-check. Undersuit/jumpsuit thing with socks and gloves included-check. And helmet-check. Okay, I think that’s everything and it fits pretty well. I’m gonna take the helmet off though; feels too much like I put a fishbowl on my head, and it squishes my hair against me in an uncomfortable way. I’m gonna ask Allura for a hair tie… Wow, I talk to myself a lot. Or am I talking to myself the normal amount? Ah whatever; let’s just get back to Allura and the others.’ I was in another room to put on my armor because Allura was kind enough to guide me to one. I value my privacy. After a few turns, not that I was lost or anything (I was but don’t tell anyone that), I made it back to Allura and the others.

“Ah, (y/n), please come over here and take your bayard,” Allura said while waving me over to a glass case.

“Sooo, what exactly is a bayard? Is it like a sword or something?” I asked while making my way over to Allura, Coran and the other paladins standing nearby.

“The bayard is a weapon whose shape conforms to that which will best fit its paladin,” She responded to me. “So it can take the form of a sword, but many other things as well.”

‘Alright, so it’s kinda like a spirit animal except it’s a weapon. Cool.’

“So, how does this work? Do I need to activate it like it’s a light saber or something?” I got a blank look from Allura when I said ‘light saber’. ‘Oh right, Aliens. They don’t know about _Star Wars_. Kind of ironic, don’t you think?’

“Just take a hold of it and its form will change,” she said, losing the blank look on her face.

With a shrug I grabbed a hold of it by the handle. I don’t even know how to really describe the shape of the bayard in its non-weapon mode, so I’m just gonna call it a thing. I lifted it up and let out a ‘woah!’ as it suddenly changed forms in my hands, causing me to almost drop it. Steadying my grip, I looked at it and realized that I just got a giant stick. Or staff. Or a giant wand maybe? Dammit, it's not a light saber. Unless it's a super long light saber? I looked up. Oh wait, never mind. It’s a scythe. Holy shit it’s a scythe; that’s fucking cool. Not as cool as a Light Saber, but still! I can be just like the grim reaper! Oh wait. I don’t know how to use one. And is it taller than me?

“Woah, cool!” I heard Lance exclaim when he saw my weapon.

I looked over to Allura and said, “I don’t know to use this. Or fight. I can argue and debate though, so I guess I can verbally fight. But that’s about it.” I think I saw the anime sweat drop or whatever it’s called on everyone when I said that.

“Don’t worry, with enough practice, you’ll be up to snuff in no time!” Coran exclaimed, peeking out from behind Allura.

“Now that you’re fully equipped, let’s head down to the purple lion’s hangar,” Allura said, beginning to lead the way, all of us following her.

.                                      .                                 .

After going through multiple corridors, we all found ourselves in the purple lion’s hangar. Its forcefield disappeared as I approached.

‘There she is, the purple lion. Or lioness. Not to assume its gender or anything, but it doesn’t have a mane. That means it’s a lioness right? But it’s called the purple LION. Maybe it was designed after a lion cub? Ahhh why do I keep confusing myself? I’m just gonna refer to the purple lion as a she. Onto a lighter note: ‘the purple lion’ is a mouthful. Time to give it a nickname. Hmmm…’

“I’m gonna call you… Barbarossa**. Rossa for short.”

“Barbarossa huh? Never heard that one before,” Coran said to the immediate left of me, causing me to jump because hoLY FUCK when did he get right next to me?!

“I said that out loud, didn’t I?” I got a closed eye smile and nod from Coran as a response.

“Well, go on then! Give ol’ Barbarossa a good pat and see Voltron for yourself!” Coran said quite animatedly, giving a bunch of hand gestures as well, switching between them so quickly I didn’t really catch any of them.

With a slightly hesitant first step I approached the newly named Barbarossa and gently placed a hand on her leg. Images suddenly flooded my mind of six robotic lions changing shape and combining to form a giant robot- blue and yellow legs, red and green arms, a purple torso, and a black head. The vision was over as soon as it started and I caught myself letting out an involuntary ‘woah’ as I was pulled back into the present. Hand still on Rossa, I looked back towards the rest of the paladins and the Alteans, who were only a few yards behind me.

“I saw it- Voltron I mean. That huge Robot made from the lions.”

“Now that we have everything settled, it’s time to get the black lion,” Allura began and then looked straight at me. “(y/n), you weren’t here before, so allow me to explain the situation now. The black lion is inside the castle and can only leave once all five lions are present at the entryway. This was to prevent Zarkon from gaining access to the lions and hence Voltron, for he desires to use Voltron to enslave the universe under the Galra empire. We can not allow the Galra to have Voltron, no matter what.” I just nodded my head to show that I understood, not really knowing how to respond to that.

‘This is what you get for being shy, AKA socially incapable: zero experience in human interaction and conversation. All you know how to say is ‘oh, nice coat!’ ‘thanks!’ and then the situation becomes ten times more awkward because you don’t know what to say from there!’

“Everyone, get to your lions. It’s time to release the black lion,” Allura said, causing the other paladins to go to their respective hangars while Allura, Coran, and Shiro headed towards wherever the black lion was being kept. Following the other paladins’ lead, I entered my lion as well and trusted it to lead me to wherever we were supposed to go.

 

 

*(Capeesh/capisce) I haven’t heard this word used in forever, so I don’t know why I thought of it now. (comes from the Italian word ‘capisce/capisci’ which means ‘do you understand/do you all understand’)

**(Bar-buh-ro-suh)Barbarossa is the name of a fantastic character from Bravely Default, one of my favorite games. He’s a pirate captain of a ship, and the lions are technically space ships sooo yeah. Also, during WWII, which I’m pretty sure is the original name or something of the sort. But my reason for naming the lion that is because of the fictional character.

**A/N: What’s this? Another chapter so soon? What can say- I’m on a roll, especially because I loved season six and I want to hurry and catch up. Seriously tho, that season had me crying for two reasons: joy and and don’t know the word to describe this but basically, “WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY?!” I wanted to believe. So badly, I did. But in the end, I couldn’t. Why was I denied my will to believe?! Oh well, can’t change it now. As I mentioned previously, not like you people read this tho, the chapters are gonna be shorted so I can update more frequently. Hope you enjoyed this tho. Thanks for reading!**

**And please tell me, am I the only one who noticed that Shiro’s name means white in Japanese but he’s the black paladin and then all the stuff in season six happened and hrrrnnngggg the oxymoron of his paladin color and name, black and white, was kinda foreshadowing that season six stuff and aagahkahgl. Please tell me some of you guys noticed it too. Okay I’m done.**

 

**XOXO**

**~Threbony**


	9. We did the thing! Y'know. The THING.

Unedited

 

 

We were all in some sort of larger hangar I guess? Well, it was large enough for us all to fit our lions in with plenty of room to spare. Getting out of my lion, I followed suit and stood in front of it just like the others. Except for Shiro, that is. He stood a few meters in front of us, facing some kind of huge door, I’m assuming. The held the same marking as the v-shaped pattern on my armor with two vertical lines connecting it to the bottom of the door. One by one, all the lions’ eyes lit up, the door’s pattern lighting up afterwards. The door then lifted, revealing the black lion behind it which then roared. Why? I’m not sure, but the rest of the lions roared not a second later. I jumped a bit, hearing Rossa roar from behind me, but I won’t admit that to the others. I jumped again when alarms started blaring all around us.

              “Sendak is entering the Arusian atmosphere,” Allura said over the intercom. “We need Voltron Now!”

‘Voltron? Oh right! Voltron. Back into the Lion I go then,’ I thought to myself as I clambered back up into my lion, only stumbling over my feet once, which I count as a win on my part because I am in a very stressful and disorienting situation right now because we are under attack and I’m about to dIE! Oh, wouldja lookit that, I’m already in my seat and my lion is on autopilot again. Guess I should grab the handles and actually try to pilot this lion. Like a responsible parent- I mean pilot. Just because you gave them a nickname, doesn’t mean you are their parent, (y/n). You also can’t assume their gender. That’d be very rude- FUCKKK THERe was an explosion RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME; I forgot I was in the middle of a battle. Okay (y/n), get your head in the game- Don’t think about High School Musical right now either. Just, focus.

“Man, those Galra guys repair things fast,” I heard Hunks voice come from my helmet. Guess there’s a radio installed in it. Cool. I wonder if I can use it to play music? Hmm…

“The barrier gets weaker with every blast,” Coran’s voice replaced Hunk’s. Oh, so I didn’t suffer from a direct hit to the face. Good… I’ve really got to start paying attention. “Once that shield goes down, the castle will be defenseless,” Coran continued.

“I can give you cover with the castle defenses for a while,” now it’s Allura in my helmet. “But you have to form Voltron now or we’ll all be destroyed!”

“Jeez, no pressure,” Hunk again.

“Um… not to be rude or anything, but how exactly do we form Voltron?” I muttered out, getting quieter with every word. I hope to dear lord that they didn’t explain it while I was lost in my thoughts or else I’m going to seem like a dumb… um… something… I’ll just look really dumb and irresponsible.

Allura didn’t have a chance to respond due to the barrier being hit with another purple beam, causing another explosion. A loud one at that. I heard everyone grunting from sudden rush of atmospheric pressure in my ears. So my ears have been thoroughly assaulted today.

“Listen up, Team Voltron!” I heard Shiro shout. “The only way to succeed is to give it all you’ve got! This looks sbad, but we can do this! Are you with me?”

“Mm-hm,” I hummed out in affirmation. Silence. Nobody else said anything. Was I not supposed to say anything either? Ah dammit, you screwed up again, (y/n).

“I’m nodding. Is everyone else nodding?” Hunk asked. A solid ‘yes’ was heard from everyone else. Oh, good. I didn’t screw up. Okay.

“Let’s do this!” Shiro shouted, launching his lion off the ground and up into the air, everyone else’s lions following suit. I did the same.

“Uh, like (y/n) said, how?” Lance asked. Thank you Lance, you have saved my from repeating myself and looking like a moron.

“Good question,” Shiro said, whether it was directed at me or Lance or both, I don’t know. “Does anyone have any ideas of how to form Voltron?”

“I don’t see a “combine into giant robot” button _anywhere_ on my dashboard,” Hunk said.

Ho my gah, we are being fired at by alien fighter ships, and I’m getting some serious Star Wars déjà vu right now.

“This is insane!” Pidge yelled out, “Can’t they just cease fire for one minute so we can figure this out? Is that too much to ask?” Pidge turned around, grabbed a ship with their lion’s mouth, threw the ship into another ship, destroying them both.

Not to be rude to Pidge or anything, but there’s a reason the saying “All’s fair in love and war” exists. So, no I don’t think they’ll give us time because they don’t want this to be a fair fight. I won’t say that aloud though. No way in hell. That’d sound way too snarky, and I’m only snarky with good friends. I only know these people’s names.

“We’ve got to do something,” Keith said as he brought his lion to a stop. Only to be knocked over my Hunk ramming into the red lion while shouting ‘Combine!’ Keith let out a ‘Hey!’ as his lion got back up after getting knocked over. I let out a small ‘hrmf’ as I tried to stifle my laughter because seeing Hunk just ruthlessly ram into Keith was just too good.

“Okay, that didn’t work,” Hunk said as his lion’s head tipped down, as if guilty. They both began to run again as lasers continued to shoot at them.

“Quickly, Paladins!” Allura’s face appeared on a holographic monitor to my right, “Our energy levels are getting low!”

“Maybe if we fly in formation, we’ll just combine,” Shiro suggested. “Take off on my cue. “ Shiro and the others got into a V-formation as I took my place directly behind the black lion. “One, two, three, Voltron!” We all jumped upwards right before we ran off a cliffside, our lions flying upwards.

“Here we go!” Keith.

“Come on, come on!” Lance.

And everyone else’s grunting continued to assault my ears. I’m going to assume they’re grunting from the sudden rise in air pressure from flying upwards so quickly. I can’t think of any other reason besides doing it unconsciously out of sheer determination of wanting to combine which might actually be the reason now that I think of it and- wait. Am I grunting too? I am. Well then. Let’s just keep at.

“Nothing’s happening,” Shiro said.

“Hey, wait, wait, wait! I feel something!” Lance exclaimed.

“I do, too,” Now it’s Hunk, “I feel it. It’s like we’re all being pulled in the same direction!”

“Same, but, I don’t feel in control of my lion at all…” I added.

“Uh, guys, I think I know why,” Shiro said, “Look up.”

I did so but could only see the back of Shiro’s lion. I would ask, but I’d rather not.

“What the cheese?” I heard Lance say. Who says that? I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone else say that. Ever.

“Sendak’s ship is sucking us in like a black hole!” Pidge said. Oh, so we’re caught in a tractor beam of sorts. Ok. Thank you Pidge.

Another purple beam shot from above us to the castle, effectively destroying the castle’s barrier.

“Oh, no,” came from Shiro. Hunk popped up on a holographic screen to my left, next to the screen of the castle.

“I-I don’t care what you say, Shiro. I’m panicking now!” Hunk exclaimed. A steady stream of Hunk’s screams resounded in the background as the other began to talk as well. I ignored them for the time being and tried to regain my bearings.

‘Okay, (y/n). Just relax. Breathe it, breathe out. Focus on the feeling at the tips of your fingers. Ground yourself. Alright. We’re calm now. For the most part,’ I opened my eyes after having managed to calm down just a bit. Panicking would only lead to deadly mistakes in a situation such as this.

“Everyone, just calm down! Get a hold of yourselves!” I shouted out. “I may not have know you all for very long, but I can tell that you’re all strong people. Alone, this may have been the end, yes. But we’re all in this together, don’t you forget that. Only together can we overcome this,” I finished off, adding in another High School Musical reference even though I told myself to stop. Once it’s in your head, it’s stuck in your head.

“(y/n)’s right! We can do this,” Shiro picked up for me, “We have to believe in ourselves.” Congratulations Shiro. With that line alone, you sounded almost cheesier than I did. “We can’t give up. We are the universe’s only hope.” Aaaand, the contestants are in! Vote now for who you people at home think has said the cheesiest/most cliché line! Will it be (y/n) or Shiro? I don’t know, but I can tell you that whoever gets the most votes is definitely not a winner. “Everyone is relying on us. We can’t fail. We won’t fail!” And Shiro is in the lead! Who am I even talking to? I’m just gonna stop now. “If we work together, we’ll win together!”

A solid “Yeah!” resounded from the rest of the paladins while I just smiled. It just warms your heart a little bit.

All the lions suddenly let out a roar and then moved around without are control. Shifting and molding into different shapes, I wasn’t sure what was exactly happening until I saw that we had successfully formed Voltron, my lion being the chest. Quickly Voltron took action and punched the large alien ship to the side as it was charging up another beam. I watched as the beam from the large alien ship just barely missed the castle, causing a huge explosion behind it. Looking around my cockpit, I noticed that there wasn’t much for me to control like an arm or leg would do, but instead it was more so of power levels and such. Looking a bit closer, and by messing with some buttons, I realized that I could redirect energy to the different parts of Voltron. ‘Hmm. Handy.’ I thought to myself.

“I can’t believe it!” Keith.

“We formed Voltron!” Pidge.

“I’m a leg!” Hunk.

“I’m proud you all, good work,” My little input.

“How are we doing this?” Lance.

“I don’t know, but let’s get that cannon!” Shiro.

Voltron then grabbed onto the ship’s cannon and proceeded to rip it off, throwing it away. We punched through the outer mass of the ship and fired our own beam, destroying the front of the ship from the inside out. We proceeded to do the same for the rest of the ship, which I don’t think is very ethical? I mean, what if we’re killing thousands of people? That’s war, I suppose. With a battle cry from everyone but myself, the rest of the ship was destroyed.

 

 

Arriving back at the castle, we were greeted by Coran and Allura.

“Good work, Paladins!” Allura exclaimed with great joy, her hands clasped together in front of her chest. Mostly everyone was panting, me included since I don’t really exercise much.

“Thanks, pretty lady.” Yup, that’s Lance alright.

“We did it,” Shiro said.

“Heck yeah, we did,” Keith said with a smile as he took his helmet off.

“How did we do it?” Shiro said. Hypothetically, I’m guessing.

“I was just, like, screaming the whole time,” Hunk said as he took his helmet off with a bit of a struggle, “maybe that did it.”

Pidge just looked down silently, a mournful look on their face. Shiro put a hand on their shoulder and spoke, “We’re not going to stop searching until we find your brother and father. Wherever they are, I know they’d be proud of you.” Pidge gave him a lop-sided smile.

Walking over to Pidge, I spoke too, “I know that they can’t replace them, and we can’t replace that gap either, but all the same we’re here with you and I hope that we can all find a place in your heart too.” I was thanked with the same smile. Shit, eye contact. Quick, look away! I looked over to Coran and Allura again as Allura began to speak.

“We won the battle, but the war has only just begun,” Thank you Allura, you have saved me from awkward prolonged eye contact, “I’m afraid Zarko will not stop until he gets these lions.”

“Good thing you paladins know what you’re doing,” it was Coran speaking now, “because you’re going to have to form Voltron again and again.”

“Totally,” Hunk said before his face dropped and maybe even paled a bit, “Wait, what?”

“We barely survived forming Voltron this one time,” Lance added.

“An you only had to fight one ship,” Coran said as he put his hands up and took a step forward, pointed at Shiro and crossed his arms rapidly, ending up in a sort of lunge position. “Wait until you have to fight a whole fleet of them!” He through his arms up in the air. “It’s not going to be easy being the Defenders of the Universe,” Coran said as he stood up straight again and began to stroke his mustache. Everyone gave him blank looks, me included.

“Defenders of the Universe, huh?” I looked to Shiro and saw a small grin on his face. “That’s got a nice ring to it.” I felt a smile creep up onto my face, mirroring Shiro’s. We all turned back to face our lions, a warm feeling growing in my chest.

‘I think… I’m going to like it here.’

 

 

 

 

**A/N And we’re done with episode 1!!! WHOO YEAH BABY!  WE DID IT! Also, I’ve been watching Star Trek TNG and Data is my life omg he’s too cute I’m dying. Thanks for stickin with me and I hope you’ve enjoyed this chapter.**

 

**XOXO**

**~Threbony**


	10. I'd like to clean up the blood and get some pants on, please and thank you

Unedited

 

 

“Everybody up! Zarkon’s attacking!”

“FU-“ I was cut off by faceplanting into the floor beside my bed. “Ow fuck…The emergency alarm was not how I expected to be woken up on my first day here…” I muttered to myself, rubbing my sore nose, sniffling a little. ‘Wait, sniffling?’ “Am I…” I put my fingers up to the base of my nose, “Am I bleeding?” I felt something wet on my fingers, so I pulled back, only to be met with the sight of blood on the tips of my fingers. “Look at this!”* I said, gesturing to nobody at all, “I’m bleeding! Aw, dammit,” I tilted my head back and pinched my nose to try and stop the bleeding. ‘I don’t think this is what you’re supposed to do when you have a nosebleed, but it works. Oh yeah, the siren-almost forgot.’

“Go, go, go! We need Voltron now!” Now recognizing it as Allura’s voice on the com system, I quickly got off my butt and ran out of my room, still pinching my nose. Sprinting down the hallway, I tried my best not to get lost or run out of breath because admittedly, I’m not the most physically fit. “Hurry! We can’t survive much longer!” Allura’s voice shouted again. Making various turns down passageways, left or right, I hoped that I had grown accustomed to the castle the previous day enough to get me to the bridge. I also came close to running into walls a couple times because I couldn’t see them with my arm in my face trying to hold the blood in, so I just gave up after the third close call and let go of my nose. ‘I might get blood on my face, but it’s better than running into a wall and damaging my nose further.

“Oh, no! Allura is dead!” I heard Coran’s voice over the intercom now just as I approached a set of doors. Entering them, I recognized the area as the bridge where Coran and Allura were at. “Aw, it’s horrible! Her head fell off!” Coran’s theatrics continued. I noticed I was one of the last to arrive, Shiro, Keith, Pidge, and Hunk having gotten there before me. I casually strolled up to them, standing next to Hunk. “Wait! What? Her severed head is trying to speak to me! What is it, Allura’s head? What are your final words?” Coran was on his knees, crocodile tears in his eyes.

“Coran,” Allura pointedly said to get his attention.

 

“Oh, yes, Princess, I’m listening,” He said towards the ground, where the supposed ‘severed head of Allura’ was.

“It’s over,” she said as the alarm turned off, before facing us.

“Oh, I know!” Coran stilled continued his act and groaned in fake despair mixed with sorrow?, “If only Voltron had been formed,” He then saw us, “Oh! Time!” He shouted as he got back up onto his feet, throwing the machine he was talking to behind him.

“I guess this isn’t an actual attack,” Shiro said, as Pidge rubbed their eyes tiredly.

“And it’s a good thing it wasn’t because it took you…” Allura looked to Coran for and answer, “Coran?”

“Seventy-five degrees,” Coran said, looking at a small device, “Oh, sorry. No, this is a meat thermometer,” Coran said with a sheepish smile on his face. Allura just deadpanned.

“However long it was, it was too long,” Allura started to approach the five of us, “You must always be ready to do battle with Zarkon. Look at you! Only Shiro is in uniform. Keith, Pidge, Hunk, (y/n), where are your bayards? And (y/n), why aren’t you wearing any pants?!”

“Um, I- uh, I-I don’t where pants to bed. I only-“ I was cut off by a yawn, “I usually wear oversized T-shirts like this one,” I gestured to my shirt which hung a bit off my shoulder and came down a little past my mid-thigh. Allura gave me a strange look and shook her head in disbelief.

“And where is Lance?” And speak of the devil, Lance came through the doors as soon as she said that donned with lion slippers and a robe, holding a cup of water or something. Damn, those slippers look comfy. I was reminded of my bare feet and a shiver went up my spine as I finally realized how cold the floor was.

Lance yawned before beginning to speak, “Good morning, everybody. What’s going on?”

‘Did his face just shimmer? Well doesn’t he look refreshed. I wish I felt the same… Oh shit, the blood!’ I brought my hand up to my nose to check if I was still bleeding. It seems it had stopped, but there was dried blood around my nose. Gross.

“Coran and I have been up for hours getting the Castle back in order,” Allura and Coran walked up to us, Lance coming up from behind to join in, “We had to run a test on the alarms, and we decided to test you as well. Guess which one failed,” Allura put her arms behind her back like a military sergeant and glared at Lance. Or all of us. I’m not sure, but I think it was mostly directed at Lance.

“Hey-“Hunk cut himself off with a yawn, bringing his hand up to cover his mouth, “You got to sleep for 10,000 years, man. Monday night, I was on Earth. Now, I’ve flown through space,” Hunk began to count off the things he did on his fingers, “fought some evil alien named Zarkon, eaten goo in some weird castle. That’s a lot to process in uh…” He trailed off and began to scratch his cheek, “I-I don’t know-What day is today?”

“It’s the third quintant of the Spicolian movement,” Coran replied, “Hump day!”

“It’s a lot to process,” Hunk spoke again.

“You must understand the stakes of our mission,” Allura began to reprimand- I mean speak again, bring up a holographic screen right in front of her, “Over the last 10,000 years,” she began to mess with the interactive screen until it disappeared and the entire room became a holographic universe, “the castle picked up distress beacons from the following locations. So, we have to assume that Zarkon has conquered almost the entire known universe.” I watched in awe as many of the blue and white stars became reds, oranges, and yellows, creating a beautiful scene right before my eyes, along with a shooting star and wait- are those triforces? Allura swiped her hand and the universe moved with it,  bringing in more of the blue planets and galaxies. “Earth is here,” the milky way galaxy appeared before us, “an attack on your planet is inevitable.”

“Oh, no,” Hunk muttered out from beside me.

“Exactly,” Allura continued, “Out mission is to free all of those planets,” The many lights of the universe quickly, one by one, dispersed into nothingness in the blink of an eye, “Coran and I are getting the Castle ready to leave Arus. During that time, you have to learn to form Voltron, so we can begin fighting Zarkon.”

“The Princess is right,” Shiro said, causing my focus to shift to him, “Let’s get to our lions and start training.”

“Wait,” Pidge quickly turned around and faced Shiro, “but I want to talk to the prisoners we rescued from the Galra ship.”

“Ah- negative, Number Six,” Coran was bent at a 90 degree angle and had on hand positioned flat at the same height as pidge and the other outstretched to the floor, “I have you ranked by height, okay?” He quickly stood up and put his hands behind his back, “The prisoners need to remain in the cryo-plenishers until tomorrow.”

“That’s right,” Allura affirmed, “Now, get to your lions.”

“Um, I’m gonna go was the blood off my hands and face first, okay? Oh, and get some pants too.”

“Blood? What happened?” Shiro asked me, concern written clearly on his face, his eyes glancing around my face and my hands to see where the blood was.

“I um,” I reached my hand up and began to scratch the back of my head in embarrassment, “I kinda fell face-first out of the bed and got a nose bleed… surprise?” I sheepishly grinned.

Shiro sighed, whether out of relief or disbelief, I’m not sure, but then warmly smiled, “Alright, just, meet up with us soon, alright?”

I nodded, my cheeks a bit warm from both embarrassment and not being used to near strangers being so kind to me after only having just met them. I turned and began to jog back to the bathroom attached to my room to finally get the dried blood off me.

 

______________________

 

*If you’ve seen AVPM, you’ll understand. Highly recommend watching AVPM if you haven’t yet.

___________________

 

A/N: Alright, episode 2 babyyyy we here and we going with a little bit of reader bein an awkward bean and some light, family-friendly Shiro fluff at the end. It’s stuff like that that makes him Space Dad because he IS the Space Dad. Anywas, thank ya kindly for stickin with me, and I hope you’ve enjoyed.

 

XOXO

~Threbony


	11. I can drive a car, but I was never taught how to fly a lion.

Unedited

 

‘Y’know, if I bled a _teeny_ bit more, it could’ve looked like I was a vampire and took a bite out of somebody…but who would I take a bite out of? Hmm… Well, that’s a thought for another day,’ I thought to myself before finally washing the blood off my hands and face. “Alright, let’s go fly a lion,” I said to myself in the mirror, trying to reassure myself by making a determined fist. With that, I put on my suit and made my way to the bridge where there was another door of sorts which would lead me to my lion.

Approaching the door Allura had referred to earlier, it opened as soon as I approached it, much like the other doors in the castle. Inside was a circular platform with railing on the left and right, but not on the front and back. It’s diameter was larger enough where if I laid down, I don’t even know if I would be taller than it. So, without knowing what else to do, I stepped on it, then turned to face the door, much like I would in an elevator, because I assume that’s was this was. If it’s like some Perry the Platypus tube, I will scream and never use it again. The platform lowered to show a tunnel of whites and grays with lavender highlights with a handlebar on the ceiling in front of me. Not knowing what else to do, I jumped up to grab it. As soon as I took hold of it, I shot down the tunnel like a zipline but without the safety measurements.

“WAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH ~~luigi~~ fuck-don’t let go, don’t let go, don’t leT GOOOO!” I screamed as the zipline came to a sudden stop, flinging me off from my moment carrying me through into a tube of some sorts. I continued to scream as I fell until I landed in the seat of a purple and blue hovercraft of some sort. ‘Okay, how to I drive this? There are two joystick-like handles, so I guess I grab them and push?’ I did so and the vehicle moved forward. ‘Okay, we’re doin good, (y/n). We’ll just follow this to the end of the tunnel. At the end there was an empty room. As soon as I stopped the vehicle by simply releasing the pressure on the handles, the floor began moving upwards into a large, empty, room that was gray with purple accented lights. ‘This is actually pretty cool.’

 The platform stopped when it reached yet another platform, which turned out to be the hangar of the purple lion. Getting out of the vehicle, I approached my lion, “Heya, Rossa. Ya ready for some practice with the others because I’m sure not,” I said, placing my hands on my hips. Rossa didn’t move. “Yeah, yeah, I know I have to have more ‘social interactions’ and create more ‘social links’ so that I’ll be less socially inept. Well, maybe I like being a recluse sometimes. Sometimes it’s nice to be alone with my thoughts. Other times, not so much… Ahh, enough of my rambling, let’s get moving!” Rossa lowered her head and opened her mouth, allowing me inside. Sitting down in the chair in front of the control panel, I noticed that the controls were similar to the hovercraft so I just assumed it would pilot the same way. Seeing the hangar open in front of me, I grabbed the handles, pushed the handles forwards, and Rossa began to make her way outside, a bit to fast at first, making me let out a little yelp before adjusting the speed. I quickly made my way over to the other lions who were waiting several hundred meters away from the castle.

“Hey, I hope I didn’t make you guys wait too long,” I said, nervous I had irritated them.

“Don’t worry, you weren’t long at all,” Shiro replied as he and everyone else turned their lions around to face the opposite direction of the castle. I walked my lion up to be a little behind the black lion. “All right, guys. Let’s just fly in tight formation until we’re totally in sync.”

Allura’s face popped up on a screen to my right, “Feel the bond with your lions and your fellow pilots until five become one unit and you form Voltron!” Everyone except me let out a simultaneous ‘yeah’ and leapt up off the ground, shooting through the sky, me following right behind. While flying in formation, they all let out more synchronized ‘yeah’s, each less enthusiastic than the last.

‘How the hell are they synching up their shouts at the same time? Are they telepathically linked or something? Why am I not included in this ‘yeah-ing’?’

“Woo” Hunk said unenthusiastically, “Am I the only one who’s still pretending to be excited?” He was met by silence.

‘Yo, I’m still tryin’ to cope with how I’m flying a robot lion and not crashing into the ground because gravity is a thing.  How am I supposed to get used to hovercrafts actually being real? I mean, it’s pretty feckin’ cool ‘n all, but I’m flying a damn lion that combines with more lions to be a giant robot. It’s like Transformers except they’re shaped like lions and they get merged together. Actually, it’s nothing like Transformers, never mind. Long story short, I’m still too numb with shock to feel excitement,’ of course this is what I wanted to say, but I didn’t because they’d all think I was some fuckin’ weirdo with mental issues and I ain’t about to deal with that.

“Maybe we should be building Voltron from the ground up,” Keith’s voice came from my helmet. Wait, did I miss something? I’ve really got to start paying attention.

“What do you mean?” Shiro asked.

“I mean, let’s try literally building Voltron, like, stacking on top of each other,” Keith replied.

“Like a cheerleader Pyramid?” Lance butted in.

“You got a better idea?” Keith shot back. Lance didn’t respond.

“It’s worth a try,” Shiro said.

‘I’m getting more “High School Musical” flashbacks…There were cheerleaders in that movie, right? Wasn’t Sharpay one of them? And what kind of a name is Sharpay?’

So then we all stacked our lions on top of one another, but I don’t think it was supposed to look like this? Green bottom left, blue bottom right, purple and red and top of them, black’s hind legs on blue and green, front legs on red and purple, and yellow balancing on top of black.

“Umm, I don’t think we’re doing this right…” I trailed off.

“Hunk, what are you doing?” Shiro asked, not very amused by the situation.

“What do you mean?” Hunk responded.

“You’re supposed to be the leg over there.”

“What? No. No, no, no. I’m pretty sure that when we did it last time, I was the head. Right?”

“You yelled, ‘I’m a leg!’” Now Lance joined in.

“Yeah, I was yelling a lot of things,” Hunk defended.

“Shiro’s the head,” and now Keith got involved.

“All the time?” Hunk asked.

“Let’s just try it my way for now,” Shiro said, finally putting an end to this little aside.

“Okay, but next time I call head,” Hunk said. I let out a quiet little giggle of amusement due to this whole situation.

“Hey, you got a pretty cute laugh there, (y/n),” Lance said, a hint of a sly tone in his voice. This cut off my giggle immediately.

“I-I, umm, uh… let’s just…build the pyramid again, okay?” I think my cheeks were about to explode from the excess amount of blood heating up my face. And is that…is that steam coming out of my ears? No? Okay, if you’re sure…

With that we began to rebuild the pyramid, properly this time. Blue and Yellow as the base, Red and Green on top of them, Purple balancing on top of Red and Green, and Black on top of Purple.

“Feel the bonds with your lions,” Shiro began to instruct us. “Now, channel your energy into forming Voltron.” Taking a deep breath, I placed my hands on the controls and closed my eyes, focusing on the feeling of the handles against my palms. “Focus. Focus.” Nothing happened for a few seconds before Shiro spoke up again, “Is everyone bonding and focusing?”

“Why was this so much easier before?” Lance asked.

“Survival instincts and desperation?” I suggested.

Shiro sighed, “Let’s take a break.

“Sorry to interrupt, but I may be able to help,” Allura spoke up, her image appearing on a screen to my right once more. “Yesterday, you weren’t able to form Voltron until you were in the heat of battle.”

“Yeah,” Pidge.

“I’m listening,” Lance.

“You’re right,” Shiro.

“Yeah, I guess,” Keith.

“So, that survival stuff like (y/n) said,” Hunk. Thank you for acknowledging my existence, Hunk. That was not sarcastic in the least, by the way.

“Perfect,” Allura responded. “Because I need to run a diagnostic test on all the Castle defenses. This should help!” Suddenly, we were all being fired at by lasers. Like, what the hell, Allura? You tryin’ to kill us? I guess, the threat on our lives would put us in the same mindset as before and could lead to us forming Voltron, but still!

“AAAH” I screamed out, along with everyone else screaming as we tried to dodge the incoming projectiles.

“Allura, what are you doing?” I heard Keith lash out.

“Running a diagnostic test on the Castle defenses and inspiring you!” She responded. “I believe in you, Paladins! Let fear be your guide! Form Voltron!”

‘Okay, this is getting a little too yandere for my tastes,’ by that point I just tuned out everything around me and followed behind the black lion because I knew that if I focused on how I was about to die, I could and probably would have a panic attack and pass out like the first time I was in the purple lion. Eventually the firing stopped and I tuned back into the world around me.

“It looks like the firing’s stopped,” Shiro pointed out.

“Let’s head back in before Allura starts firing at us again,” Lance suggesting. I hummed in agreement and followed him back to the castle, the others doing so as well.

‘I never signed up for this kind of stress…’

________________

 

 

**A/N: Didn’t expect another update so soon, eh? Well, I’ve been feeling inspired as of late. Anyway, we’re now about a third of the way into the second episode~ Can’t wait til we get to the more juicy spicy bits oooooh. Well, as always, I hope you enjoyed and Thanks for stickin’ with me cuties.**

 

**XOXO**

**~Threbony**


	12. Two Eyes in the Dark

Unedited

 

The paladins and I, minus Shiro, made our way to what I’m gonna call the ‘lounge room.’ It was just a normal, empty room of mostly gray with a sunken-in floor in the middle which served as a circular couch or bench. Whatever you wanna call it. Hunk sat on the far left, Lance laid down, taking up the middle and the mid-left, Keith sat to the right of him, and Pidge sat at the far-right end of the couch. Seeing as how Lance took up half of the space on the couch-bench thing, leaving no space next to Hunk, and I don’t think Keith really trusts me yet, I sat down next to Pidge. Exhausted from all the stress I had to endure over the past few days and the fact that I was being shot at by lasers only ten minutes prior, I felt my eyelids grow heavy; it became hard to keep them open. Turning to Pidge, I poked their arm a couple times to get their attention.

“Hey, can you-” I was interrupted by my own yawn, “-can you wake me up when it’s time to do stuff again?” Pidge gave me a single nod in response. Smiling at them, I got comfortable in my seat and felt myself begin to lose consciousness.

Inky black void. That was all I saw. Just pure emptiness. Nothing to show that there was anything out there. No sounds, sights, smells; not even a speck of light. Just pure empty nothingness. Then a whisper, so faint that it was barely there; you had to strain your ears to even pick up the slightest portion of it. Then an onslaught of voices, thousands of them, speaking in different tones, different pitches, different languages, constantly getting louder and louder. I tried to cover my ears, but I couldn’t move my arms- I couldn’t _feel_ my arms. It was just an endless cacophony of voices, yelling in my ears. It hurt. IT HURTS. MAKE IT STOP.

“Two…eyes…” A voice louder than the rest bellowed within my head. “Two eyes… in the dark…” Two bright lights shone in front of me in the distance. Pressure on my shoulder. The void shook. My eyes opened. Pidge shook me awake.

“Oh, is it time for stuff now?” I asked, rubbing the sleep out of my eyes.

“Yeah, we’re all heading down to the training deck to do some, well, training stuff.”

“Oh, okay,” I mumbled and got up, beginning to follow Pidge out of the room, seeing the other Paladins and the Alteans a few yards ahead of us down the hall. “Two eyes in the dark…” I mumbled to myself under my breath. I wonder what that was all about.

“Hmm? Did you say something?” Pidge looked back at me and asked, not stopping their strides.”

“What? Oh, no, it’s nothing. Just a weird dream I had,” I replied. Pidge just shrugged and turned back around. ‘I wonder if the food goo’s the reason for the weird ass dream I had. Well, I hope my dreams return to normal sooner rather than later. Unless I get a bunch of people who make you go “Hot Damn!” When you see them, then that’s more than okay because I want dreams with pretty people so that they can all love me and I’ll love them because THAT, my friends, is the true meaning of my existence. Or it might not be. Who knows. OK, enough with the philosophical shit, it’s too early for that. Let’s just focus on doing some training with the others.’

 

 

_______________Bonus_________________

~Pidge’s P.O.V.~

I was sitting down n the bench with the rest of the paladins, besides Shiro, glad to finally have a breather after trying to dodge all the lasers being fired at us from the Castle. I felt a sudden weight on my shoulder, so I looked to my left to see what it was and woah, that’s (y/n) sleeping on my shoulder.

‘Aaaghhh, what do I do in this kind of situation?’ I thought to myself, feeling my cheeks get a bit warm. ‘I guess I’ll just have to leave her be? Yeah, yeah. That’s what I’ll do. I’ll just ignore the fact that I can now feel her soft (h/c) hair grazing my neck. Yup.’ My attention was then brought away from (y/n) and to the door having opened, seeing Allura and Coran walk through, talking about the Castle’s systems.

 

 

 

 

**A/N: Yo whaddup. Sorry for the shorter chapter, but I’m in a bout of insomnia right now so life is hell. But heyyy, I hope you enjoyed that little bonus, and I’m sorry if Pidge is kinda OOC but whatever. And we’re getting a little glimpse into the reader’s lore. I’ve got some big plans ahead for the reader’s personal future, if that makes any sense at all. Like always, thanks for stickin with me, and I hope you’ve enjoyed. Also there's more than 250 of you like holy shit I don't deserve you guys' praise for this thing, but thank you so much, I love you all. (Psst, you should talk to me sometime, y'know, hook ya gurl up with some friends AKA you all *wink* *wonk* or just ask me stuff. I like to answer questions about myself because I like it when people are _actually_  interested in me.)**

 

**XOXO**

**~Threbony**


	13. Nosediving again... Welp, Time for me to eat dirt

Unedited

 

Coran cleared his throat as the lights came on in the training deck we were in. The other paladins and I were all standing in a circle, our backs to each other. I stood between Hunk and Keith.

“Two, two, one, two,” Coran’s voice echoed throughout the deck. “Okay, listen up, guys. The paladin code demands you put your team members’ safety above your own. A swarm of drones is about to attack.” I heard a small ‘huh?’ come from Keith on my right. “It’s up to each of you to do everything you can to protect the other members of your team.” As Coran was speaking, these small, floating metal spheres with a single eye? Camera? Laser shooting thingy? on them came out from some ducts in the walls. The drones began circling us. Instinctively I brought my arm up to try and shield my face from an upcoming attacks when a light blue, semi-translucent shield popped out from my arm. Well then.

“Wait, wait, wait, wait,” Hunk spoke up from my left, “What’s going on?” Hunk gasped and flinched when his shield appeared on his arm. “Woah. Did you guys get one of these?”

“Get ready,” I heard Shiro’s voice come from behind me.

The drones began to shoot at us and I heard a grunt from Hunk, then one from Pidge, and then a scream from Pidge.

“Pidge?!” I yelled out and looked behind me, but Pidge was already gone. “Hhg!” I grunted and stumbled a bit when I felt a laser come in contact with my shield.

“Protect your teammates or no one will be there to protect you!” As Coran was speaking, Hunk was also shot and proceeded to join Pidge.

On my right I was Keith backing up, so I proceeded to do the same until I felt my back press up against somebody. Glancing to my right I saw Keith, and to my left I saw Lance, which meant that Shiro was behind me.

“Time to increase intensity,” Coran’s voice came through the speakers again. Suddenly the drones began circling us much more quickly, to the point where they were mere blurs. Suddenly I was hit in the hip by one of them and I felt the ground open beneath me.

“WoAAAAAH,” I screamed as I fell down. ‘I’m not cut out for this sort of thing…’

 

**.                             .                                .**

Keith and I were up in the viewing room with Coran, watching Lance down in the training deck below us in a holographic maze. Keith was going to guide Lance through the maze and I was up next to guide one of the other paladins afterwards.

“To form Voltron, you must trust in each other,” Coran spoke into his headset. “This ancient paladin maze will teach you that trust.”

‘Why not just do trust falls? That’s what they had us do all the time back in grade school,’ I thought to myself.

“Your teammate can see the walls, but you cannot,” Coran said as the maze in the training deck disappeared. So, listen carefully. If you tough the walls, you’ll get a slight shock.”

Lance put his helmet on, “Wait. Who’s guiding me through?”

“Take two steps forward,” Keith said.

“Oh, no. Not Keith,” I saw Lance slouch a little. “Why does he get to be the man on the mic? Can’t I have someone else like (y/n) or Allura?”

“Now, just sit tight,” Coran replied, giving no heed to Lance’s inquiry. “You’ll get your turn.”

“Like I said, take two steps forward, turn right, and take three steps that direction,” Keith restated, looking at a holographic map of the maze.

Lance turned to his right and walked forward, straight into one of the walls. “GAAH!” He screamed as he was shocked. He whipped around and glared at the observation room, “You did that on purpose!”

“You’re not listening,” Keith replied.

“You said, ‘Turn right.’”

“But, before that, I said, ‘Take two steps forward.’”

Lance grumbled, turned back to his original place. “Two steps…” he mumbled, walking forward before walking into a wall and getting shocked again. And once more, he screamed and whipped back around to yell at the observation room, “We’re switching places right now!”

‘I’m not gonna get my turn for a while, am I?’

 

**.                                          .                                          .**

It turns out I never got my turn. We just gave up on that exercise after Lance and Keith kept bickering and went out to fly our lions in formation once more.

“You’ll never be able to form Voltron unless each of you has a strong with your lion,” I heard Coran’s voice instructing me once more as I sat in Rossa’s seat.

“No problem,” I heard Lance speak up. “Me and Blue are best buds for life, for real.” Pretty smug tone ya got there, Lance.

“Perfect!” Coran exclaimed. “Then you won’t have any issues with this exercise. Everyone, put your lions into a nose dive!” One by one, we all pointed our lions downward, shooting off towards the ground. “This is an expert-level drill that you really shouldn’t attempt until you’ve been flying for years, but, uh,  we’re in a bit of a rush, so here we go. Activating training helmets!” Suddenly my vision went dark.

‘Well isn’t this some déjà vu. Except this time my vision went black while I was still conscious.’

“AAAAH- Coran, what’s happening? I can’t see!” I heard Lance freak out.

“You must learn to see through your lions’ eyes. The goal is to pull up right before you crash into the ground. Feel what the lion feels!” Coran replied, ever the enthusiast.

“Umm, Coran? Yu sure this is a good idea? Because so far, my lion seems to have taken a liking to dive bombing and crashing into things,” I stated.

“Then nows your chance to _not_ crash into things! In this case: the ground,” he replied.

“Uhhh-mine feels scared!” Hunk yelled out.

“You still going, Keith?” Lance asked, in a challenging tone.

“You know it. You?” Keith responded.

“Going? I’m speeding up!”

“Oh, yeah?”

“Must be getting close.”

“Must be.”

“You getting scared?”

“I’m not scared!”

I suddenly heard a loud boom come from the speakers.

“Are- are you guys okay?” I asked, assuming they had just crashed head-first into the ground. I received a couple groans and a weak ‘I win’ from Lance.

What as that noise?” Pidge asked. “Did they crash?” I then heard a couple of grunts a few seconds later.

“Okay, Rossa. I already know you’ve got a mind of your own, so how about we have a little heart to heart, a mind to mind, and guide me?” I quietly asked her. I was greeted with silence. “Alright. I’m going to trust you on this.” I didn’t see anything but I felt a sudden urge to pull up, so I did, but I guess I was a bit to late because I felt Rossa eat dirt. I was still going however, so I guess I didn’t bury my lion. I was just late on the withdrawal. “Sorry, Rossa, I guess I wasn’t fast enough,” I said as I slowed her down to make sure I didn’t run into any possible protruding rocks and hurt her further. I felt a warm blanket of comforting emotions envelop me, as if to say ‘it’s alright. You’re not at fault.’ I smiled. “Thanks, girl.”

“I think I’m getting this,” I heard Shiro’s voice come through.

“Excellent, Shiro!” I heard Coran call out. “(y/n), you also did well, but you still need some more practice!”

With that, we made our way back to the castle. After parking Rossa back in her hanger, I hurriedly made my way down the halls, towards the training deck, to check up on Keith and Lance. I assumed that I’d run into them on the way to the training deck because that _is_ where Coran wanted us to go next. Not even a minute later I saw them both ahead of me, a bit of an unfriendly aura between the two, but I didn’t care nor notice.

“Hey!” I called out, causing them both to turn around and look at me. “Are… are you guys… alright?” I asked when I caught up to them, a little worn out from sprinting to them all the way from the hangar. “I-I heard you guys crash. I know some basic medical stuff, so do you have any injuries? Are you woozy or dizzy at all? Are your ears ringing, is your vision blurry, or-or-or-or-” I was cut off by Keith.

“I’m fine. Thanks,” Keith’s voice was soft and had a slight warm undertone to it. I smiled at him and he quickly turned around and continued walking.

‘Aw, I bet you’re just a little softie on the inside with trust issues, aren’t you? Well don’t worry, I’ll teach you to trust me by putting my complete trust in you.’

“Well, I’m doing much better now that you’re here, gorgeous,” Lance said, slinging an arm around my shoulders. “And don’t mind him; I bet he’s just got a heart of stone on the inside. Now, let’s walk together, shall we.”

I was a little off put by his flirting because I’m not used to being flirted with because wowee, look at me, and anti-social mess! But, I smiled and nodded nonetheless, happy to know that both of them were doing alright. With that, Lance and I made our way towards the training deck to partake in the next exercise Coran had planned for us.

 

 

 

 

**A/N: Life Tips With Threbony: If you’re going through a bout of insomnia, brew yourself a cup of chamomile tea and add either milk. Drink it all down and take some melatonin. Puts ya right to sleep. Now if you have some kind of extreme case of insomnia and you have to take a prescription assigned to you by a psychiatrist, don’t heed my advice, my insomnia is just a minor case. ANYWAY,  Yoo, I’m on a bit of a roll because I’m actually enjoying myself with this fic. I don’t have much else to say, so as always, thanks for stickin with me and I hope you’ve enjoyed.**

 

**P.S. Voltron Season 7 Comes out on August 10, I’m fuckin excited holy shit. And now I have 51 followers holy shit you guys are great. EEEEH.**

 

**XOXO**

 

**~Threbony**


	14. Space Capri Suns are Team Mom Approved

Unedited

 

“Now the most important part of paladin training is being able to meld your minds and focus on one thing: Voltron,” Coran’s voice echoed throughout the training deck once again. The other paladins and I were sitting cross-legged in a circle in the center of the room, facing each other, with these strange devices on our heads. “Everything else has to fade away.”

‘So, we’re doing some kind of meditation thing, but we meld our minds together? This is confusing. And aren’t you supposed to clear your mind during meditation? I guess that’s what Coran just said… Which means I’m in trouble because my head is always full of thoughts. Like right now. And how I don’t want to do this. My mind in my own personal, private palace. Someplace sacred, where I can be alone with my thoughts. The only place where I can feel truly safe to be myself. My home. I don’t like the thought of other people rummaging through it, invading me and my privacy, learning all my secrets… I’m an introvert, for heaven’s sake! I enjoy my alone time. And although my mind may not always be pleasant, especially when I’m all on my lonesome, there are still the good times and the good thoughts where I feel content wen it’s just me and my thoughts. It’s when I can finally relax, free of pressure… Wait are we starting?’

“Now focus on forming your lion,” I heard Coran’s voice again.

‘Oh, okay, alright. Lion time,’ and with that I focused on Rossa and creating her form in my mind’s eye.

“Bring your lions together and form Voltron. Keep your minds open, work together. Good!”

Seeing my lion for in my mind, I began to mover her towards the others, following Coran’s instructions. I don’t like the feeling of the other people’s presence in my head. It’s a strange and alien sensation. You feel a little light-headed, and your brain feels like a malleable putty that holds its shape after you move it- sturdy but moves when influenced.

“Keep focusing! Only one to go!”

“Pidge, stop thinking of your girlfriend!” Keith reprimanded. I kept my eyes closed and continued to focus on building Voltron.

“I wasn’t!” Pidge retaliated, and caused the image of Voltron to vanish. Aww, and we were so close, too. “Hunk was rooting around in my head!”

“I-I thought we were open,” Hunk responded back. “You can look in my head hole.”

“Everyone has to be able to look in everyone’s head holes! Clear your minds!” Coran scolded.

‘But, I don’t want them to look in my head hole… Alright, (y/n), clear your mind and protect your thoughts by blocking them with something obscure, like… like… Two eyes in the dark! Yeah, that should do it. Two eyes in the dark… two eyes in the dark…’ And with that, we began to form Voltron with our mind lions again.

“Good!” I heard Coran encourage us. “Almost there. Now form Voltron.” And with that, our mind lions began to change shape, forming into Voltron. “Yes!” Coran cried out, but the green lion disappeared right as he said that.

“Pidge!” Lance called out.

“Rrh, I’m done with this!” Pidge yelled out, yanking off the headset, shooting up, and throwing it on the ground. I looked up, a bit startled at the sudden outburst of anger. “Look, I don’t like everyone grubbing around in my head!”

“Oh, come on, Pidge, we’re starting to get the hang of this,” Shiro pleaded with Pidge, trying to convince them to settle down.

“I’m just… I’m just tired, okay?” Pidge glanced at Shiro from the corner of their eye.

“Okay. Let’s take a break,” Shiro said, looking at the rest of us.

Getting up, I went over and sat down next to Pidge, who had sufficiently calmed down and sat on their knees. Placing a hand on their shoulder, I smiled at them and spoke with a voice barely above a whisper. “Hey, you doin’ alright?”

“Yeah, I’m good now,” Pidge nodded as well. “I just- I really don’t like people rummaging around in my head.”

“Yeah, I don’t like it either to be honest,” I turned back to look at the others in front of us. Hunk and Lance talking on our right, Keith and Shiro on our left. “Letting people inside your mind, the one true place where you have complete privacy, where all of your secrets, thoughts, opinions are stored, never to be seen by the light of day.” I turned back to look at Pidge, who was now facing be. “But you know, aren’t those what friends are for? Being able to trust them with your biggest secrets and your darkest thoughts, and not have them judge you or treat you any differently for them? What does it matter if they learn stuff about you now, or later? As long as they’re genuine, it doesn’t matter because they’ll accept you all the same. As long as the friend is true, and you are true to them, it doesn’t matter what you learn about them or what they learn about you in the past, the present, and the future. Time isn’t linear, don’t forget. After all, time is but merely a concept of human perception.” Pidge just continued to stare at me. Whether I got through to them or not, I don’t know, what with my excessively long rant, but I only hope that I did get my point across. “Sorry, I went off for a while there, didn’t I?” I asked, scratching my head in embarrassment. Pidge opened their mouth to respond but was interrupted by Coran coming up to us and handing us what I assume to be the Altean equivalent to Capris Suns.

“You have been working hard,” he said as he passed out the space juice. “Maybe it’s time to relax a little.”

‘Hmm, not bad,’ I thought to myself, drinking the space juice, when Allura suddenly appeared before us.

“What are you doing lying around?” Oof, she was mad at us, alright. “You’re supposed to be training!” The four mice were on her shoulders, and damn, if that ain’t cute, I don’t know what is. They kind of took away from her intimidation factor though.

“Just resting a bit,” Coran responded for us. “You know, you can’t push too hard.”

“What do you mean, ‘can’t push too hard’? Get up, you lazy lumps! It’s time you faced the Gladiator!”

‘Ooh, I don’t like the sound of that. Is it like a Roman Gladiator? Y’know, where people DIED? I’d rather not die today, thank you. I’d rather not have anybody else die on me either.’ And with that, we were all equipped with our weapons, stripped of our space capri sun, and about to fight for our lives. Maybe. Probably not. I don’t think Allura’d try to kill us. I hope.

“In order to defeat the Gladiator, six paladins must fight as one,” once more, Coran’s voice resonated throughout the training deck.

“Umm,” I began to speak up, scythe in hand, “I don’t really know how to use a scythe. Should we really be doing this without any form of weapons training?” I asked. ‘The only kind of weapon I’ve used on somebody was a knife. And that’s when I accidentally cut myself. Unless we’re counting legos, because I’ve stepped on those little devils countless times and it _hurts_.’

“Don’t worry about a thing, just focus on that Gladiator!” Coran replied to my question.

‘Well then. Guess I’ll just have to swing this thing around and hope for the best.’ I then heard a hatch open up above me, and based on their reactions, so did the others as they all turned towards the sound.

“Hmm? Whoa!” Hunk shouted as the Gladiator slammed down onto the training deck floor.

Hunks then just started fire as the Gladiator ran towards him, easily dodging his shots. Hunk’s random firing however headed straight towards Keith, who was just barely able to pull up his shield in time to deflect the shots. The Gladiator then swept its bow staff at the back of Hunk’s legs, knocking him onto his back and immediately shocking him afterwards. Hunk passed out on impact. Quickly, I ran up to the gladiator, a few feet behind Pidge. I was holding the heavy end of the scythe in my (dominant hand), keeping the blade near the ground, pointing the sharp end forwards, preparing to land an upwards strike on the Gladiator. Pidge attempted to strike the Gladiator’s left side, but was blocked by its bow staff. The Gladiator quickly took up a fighting stance and hit Pidge three times before shocking them, throwing them over to where Hunk was. While its back was still facing me, I quickly sprinted towards it and swung my scythe upwards, only to be blocked by the Gladiator’s staff catching onto the corner where the blade met the staff. Quickly, I was thrown back by the Gladiator via a swift kick to my chest. Just as I landed on the ground, I was shocked and subdued by the Gladiator, and by god, did that hurt. I’m pretty sure I let out a yelp from that. My ears were ringing and my vision was blurry for an indeterminate amount of time, and it took a while before I regained my bearings.

“That combat simulator was set at a level fit for an Altean child!” I heard Allura’s voice break past the ringing in my ears.

With a groan, I sat up and looked at Allura, “Well, where we’re from, children don’t have to learn how to fight.” I received a glare from Allura in response. Ooh, she’s mad. She’s very mad.

“You’re not even close to working as a team, let alone ready to face Zarkon!” she scolded us, her hands on her hips.

“Allura, listen, I don’t know about the others, but I’ve never had to use a weapon against anyone else, let alone had a reason to. And I doubt any one of us has had to fight in combat together. This is all so new to us; we’re not going to be perfect at everything on our first try. It’s only human of us. Furthermore, I’m still a complete stranger to everyone. It’s hard to fight alongside someone when you don’t know if you can trust them.” I desperately tried to reason with Allura. She just scowled at me and stomped out of the room.

‘So much for reasoning,’ I sighed.

 

**.                                 .                               .**

 

“Ahoy, young Paladins!” Coran enthusiastically shouted out. “I’ve whipped up a big batch of focusing food. After this meal, you’ll be forming Voltron six times a movement and twice on the astral conflux!”

We were all sad at a table, a plate of food goo in front of us, and four trays along the table, two on either side, two trays contained more food goo, and the other two contained some kind of pink brick with a green stripe down the middle. I was sitting at the far-left end of the table, Shiro to my immediate right, then Hunk, Lance, Keith, and Pidge along the same side of the table.

“Smells great, Coran. Thanks.” Shiro spoke up on our behalf.

We all went to begin eating when suddenly handcuffs appeared around our wrists and connected our hands to the people next to us. In my case, my right hand was connected to Shiro’s left.

“Hold the phone!” Lance exclaimed, looking over at Coran.

“O was a lot of solid individual performances today, but you’re still struggling to work as a team.” Coran explained. “So, welcome to the final bonding exercise of the day.”

Hunk tried to pull his hands away from Lance and then Shiro to no avail, “Coran, I want you to think about what you’re doing.” I think this is the closest I’ll ever see Hunk to yelling at someone in rage.

“This one’s a classic,” Coran ignored Hunk’s implied threat. “You get to fee each other, like a pack of yalmors!” Everyone was groaning/growling at each other besides Shiro and me.

Shiro and I just looked at each other while we heard the others start to complain and yell at each other as they tried to eat. “So, uh…” I trailed off not knowing what to say. ‘Holy fuck, I’m gonna have to feed Shiro, how the fuck do I do that? “I guess, umm, I have to help you eat?” I felt my face grow warmer as I was talking. “Or not, I could just let my hand go limp and give you complete control, besides I still have my left hand so don’t mind me, heh eh… I’m sorry.”

“No, no. Don’t worry about it. You’re fine,” Shiro said as he smiled at me. If my face wasn’t already the color of the red lion, I’m sure it was now.

“Do Earthlings ever stop complaining?” Allura growled out, sitting at the head of the table to my left.

“Can’t you just give us a break? Everyone’s been working really hard today,” Shiro tried to bargain with her, taking on a stern tone.

“Yeah!” Keith agreed with Shiro. “We’re not some prisoners for you to toy with, like… like...” he trailed off, not knowing how to finish his example.

“Like a bunch of toy prisoners!” Lance finished for him.

“Yes! Thank you, Lance!”

“You do _not_ yell at the Princess!” Coran retaliated from beside Allura.

“Oh, the princess of what?” Pidge joined in. “We’re the only ones out here and she’s no princess of ours!” Pidge was smacked in the face by a glob of food goo.

“Allura!” I yelled at her, seeing as she was the one who flung the food goo at Pidge.

“Go loose, Pidge!” Keith yelled out as he and Pidge quickly grabbed a plate of goo and threw it at Allura, but Coran deflected it with his cloth napkin and slung more goo at us, hitting all of us across the face with food goo.

“Oh, it’s on now,” Hunk said as he dove head first into his plate of goo and rose back up with his cheeks stuffed with it. He slammed his palms down on his cheeks, spraying goo all over Allura and Coran. Suddenly we all broke out into a full out food war, the paladins versus the Alteans. Food goo was flung back and forth across the room. Shiro and I were able to hit Allura and Coran a few times, but we both suffered our fair share of goo projectiles. Before I knew it, I was full blown laughing out in enjoyment, covered in goo, and flinging it at the two aliens before us. Soon enough, we all grew tired, and Allura sat down on one of the two chairs across the table that were still standing. We all looked at each other and laughed before Allura suddenly interrupted us.

“Enough!” She cried out. “Do you see what you’re doing? You’re finally working together as one!” Oh, she’s not angry at us anymore. That good. I felt myself smiling at Allura, who was smiling just as jovially at the lot of us.

“Hey, she’s right,” Keith said, his tone softer than I’d ever heard it before.

“I actually don’t hate you right now,” Lance said to Keith.

“You guys thinking what I’m thinking?” Hunk butted in, a contagious smile on his face.

“Let’s go form Voltron!” Shiro raised his fist in determination.

“Yeah!” We all said together, which I actually did as well, for once.

“Actually, I was thinking dessert,” Hunk said. “But, yeah! Let’s do it!” Hunk raised his arms up and then fell down, causing us all to fall down with him. And with that, we all headed down to our lions.

“Everyone ready to do this?” Shiro asked us all, confidence and determination clear in his voice.

“You know it,” I replied.

“Roger that,” Pidge.

“It’s on!” Lance.

“Yes, sir!” Keith.

“I was born ready!” Hunk.

“Then let’s go!” Shiro finished out.

“Yeah!” We all shouted in unison.

‘I think I’m getting the gang of the synchronized shouts.’

And with that we flew our lions out of the castle and were finally able to successfully combine into Voltron. We then landed on the ground in front of Allura and Coran.

 

**.                                 .                                  .**

 

As I was walking back through the castle to meet up with the others in what I have dubbed the “lounge room,” y’know that room with the sunk in couch in the floor, I met up with Hunk.

“Hey Hunk! Mind if I walk with ya?”

“Huh? Oh, sure, go ahead,” he replied to me.

 Smiling at him, I walked next to him, finally starting to get a bit more comfortable around the paladins. We walked in silence for a little while before Hunk broke it with a question.

“Hey, uh, (y/n)? I’ve been meaning to ask you something.”

“Shoot.”

“What, uh, what does ‘two eyes in the dark’ mean?” I blinked at him a couple times. “Well, during the mind melding thing, I noticed that that was in your head, so I was kind of curious.”

“You’re fine, Hunk, I understand. And to answer your question: I wish I knew Hunk. I wish I knew.”

After that we had reached the lounge room. Pidge and Shiro were sitting at the right end of the couch, and Lance and Keith in the center. Walking around, I sat down next to Keith while Hunk sat on the floor above the bench, his legs dangling on the backrest between Lance and Keith. Keith glanced over at me, a small smile on his face before his attention was drawn to Lance who began to speak.

“Man, that was cool!” Lance shouted out, his excitement plain as day. “I’m so charged up, I don’t know if I’m going to be able to sleep tonight.”

“Not me,” Keith spoke up. “When my head hits the pillow, I’m going to be lights out.”

“I just want you to know that I realized when we were in Voltron,” Hunk began to talk as he slipped down into the spot between Keith and Lance before grabbing them both and pulling them into a hug, “we’re brothers and sisters, man. You know? Like, we’re totally connected. No secrets, no barriers, no nothing. Brothers all the way. I love you guys.”

I smiled at them, enjoying the sweet moment from afar.

“G-forces mess with you head a little bit?” Keith asked as Shiro stood up and walked away from his seat.

“Yeah, maybe a little. I don’t know. It’s been a tough few days,” Hunk replied as he let them go from his hug. Keith then got up, proceeded by Hunk, Lance, and then me.

“Hey, guys?” I spoke up, they glanced back at me. “I’m proud of you all, y’know?” I smiled, and they smiled back.

“Going to bed, Pidge?” Shiro asked, diverting his attention to said person.

“In a minute,” was Pidge’s response.

“Good work today. We’re really coming together,” Shiro said, a smile still on his face.

“Night, everyone,” I muttered out, yawning immediately after. I heard a resounding ‘night’ from everyone else as I walked down the hall towards my room, immediately collapsing onto my bed, falling asleep on the spot.

 

 

 

 

**A/N: Woahhh long chapter today. But with this, we’ve finished episode 2! Hooray! Also, I hoped you like that “team mom” bit between the reader and Pidge. But space capri sun. I wanna try that. But hey, enough bout me and this shitty story, it’s time to talk about you! You’re all pretty fanfuckintastic people, so I wanna read your stories and fanfictions too! That is, only if you want me to. So, if you want me to read them, PM me a link and I’ll read it, k? I was going to say something else, but I forgot. Oh yeah! You may be wondering, “Threbony, what the hell?! What’s with these sudden daily updates?” Well, I feel sorry for having left a ton of you with multi-month long hiatuses, so this is my way of making up for it. Plus, I’m going away to college in exactly two weeks, so I’m gonna be busy again pretty soon. Anyway, thanks for stickin with me, and as always, I hope you’ve enjoyed.**

 

**XOXO**

**~Threbony**


	15. I don't know how to cook, but I'm doing it anyway

Unedited

 

“Great job training today, guys,” Shiro praised us as we walked into the room that held the long table in it, the same place we had the goo fight in the day before.. “We’re really getting the hang of Voltron.”

“Seriously, how far do you think my lion kicked that broken alien ship?” Lance asked, proud of himself. “Must have been like a mile!”

“Yeah, that’ll come in handy when the Galra challenges Voltron to a soccer match,” Keith retorted, stopping next to Lance in front of the doorway while everyone else moved forward. Except me. I stood behind them. Totally not eavesdropping on purpose.

“Hey, I did something cool and you couldn’t handle it. I get it,” Lance said, putting his hands on his hips.

“Your kick ruined our balance. We fell,” Keith pointed out, clearly unamused, and continued walking to catch up with the others.

“That falling part was Hunk’s fault,” Lance tried to shift the blame as he began to walk as well.

“Hey!” Hunk exclaimed, a bit offended by Lance’s claim, and struggled a little to take off his helmet which came off with a loud ‘pop’.

“All right, save your energy for fighting Zarkon,” Shiro broke up the argument, sitting down at the head of the table.

“Hello, guys!” Coran entered the room, carrying a covered platter, most likely carrying food. “How was the Voltron workout?”

“We’re getting there,” Shiro answered for us. “Are you and Allura almost done fixing the Castle so we can leave this planet? I feel like we’re sitting ducks here on Arus.”

“Just about,” Coran replied, setting the dish down on the able between Shiro and Hunk. I walked over, standing next to Coran.

“Besides that, is that food you’ve got there Coran?” I asked, some enthusiasm leaking out, clearly excited by the thought of actual food and not food goo.

“Why, yes indeed!” He replied enthusiastically. “To get your minds off these duck seats you’re worried about, I made you guys an authentic ancient paladin lunch!”

 I could feel my mouth begin to water, my gaze fixated on the plate in front of me, only to be immediately let down as Coran removed the lid, showcasing a green, porous blob with yellow-green stumps of some sort oozing out of the pores. I could feel myself cringe in disgust, my nose scrunching up as everyone else groaned, except for Coran.

“Coran, you just got me hooked on that goo and now you’re switching it up?” Hunk asked, not excited about this new food at all.

“This is packed with nutrients,” Coran explained.

Hunk leaned forward and sniffed it, “Oh, it smells disgusting!”

Coran went and smelt it too before shooting back up again. “I know! That’s how you know it’s healthy!”

“Coran, food can be healthy and can smell and taste just as appetizing. Don’t you have anything like that? Like mashed potatoes, for example. Lots of Calcium and Potassium,” I asked him. Now I’m craving Earth food and those homemade mashed potatoes we eat at Thanksgiving (I don’t know if any of you celebrate Thanksgiving or something like it, so replace it with something else you celebrate if you want).

“I don’t know what a ‘mashed potatoes’ is, but I assure you, this authentic paladin lunch will get you right back on your feet in no time!” Coran replied.

“Coran, we’re on a planet now with fresh herbs, spices, and whatever this thing is. A tuber?” Hunk said, holding up some kind of plant that had a green husk around a twisted yellow center. Keith and Lance just walked away while Hunk had Coran’s attention. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to head back to the kitchen and spice things up,” Hunk walked pat Coran, heading to the door Coran had come through.

“I’ll come with you!” I exclaimed, joining Hunk. “I don’t know much about cooking, but I know enough to make something edible. Besides, better late than never to learn how, right?” I asked with a smile.

Hunk smiled back, “Sure, the more help, the better.” With that, we made our way to the kitchen.

“So, you said this thing was a tuber, right?” I asked, picking up the plant that Hunk had placed down on the kitchen counter as he got out more ingredients he had scavenged from the planet. “It looks more like a type of corn to me, but I’m no botanist, so I’ll take your word for it.”

“Well, I found it underneath the soil, growing much like how a potato or yam would, so it would make sense for it to be a tuber,” Hunk responded to my little inquiry.

“So, should we boil it or bake it? Because those are the only to ways I know how to cook a potato.”

“Why don’t we try boiling it to make something like those mashed potatoes you were talking about earlier?” Hunk suggested.

“Sure!” I shouted, a large smile pulling my cheeks on my face. My face quickly heated up when I realized how loudly I had shouted. “I’ll just, uh, go get the water started,” I said, scrambling to get the small pot Hunk had taken out and then quickly filled it with water from one of those hoses on the wall, double checking to make sure it was a water nozzle and not a food goo one.

 I heard Hunk let out a small chuckle, amused by my small burst of excitement and then embarrassment, not sure why though, as he began to prepare some of the other things he wanted to make. I had filled the pot a little over half-way and brought it back over to the counter. Hunk had pointed out the stove to me earlier, which was really more of a large hot plate. It was sunk into the counter by a couple inches and was next to what was similar too a sink, but was only used to wash things in, as the water came out straight from the side, rather than from a faucet. Placing the pot on the hot plate, I then began to peel the husks off the yellow tubers while waiting for the water to boil.

“Hey, do we need to add anything to the water while it boils? Like a type of space salt or something?” I asked Hunk as I began to peel the last tuber.

“No, but I have these spices I want to add to it after we’ve mashed it,” Hunk said, looked over his shoulder at me, since he was working on the counter behind me. “Once the water’s boiling, you can start to grind up the herbs spices if you want. I found some stuff that you could use as a mortar and pestle,” Hunk suggested, gesturing to a bowl that held said herbs and spices with a stick made out of the same metal material next to it.

Nodding my head, I went to check on the water, and wow it was already boiling. I better not touch that hot plate or else my skin will fall off in an instant, I’m sure of it. Taking care not to touch the hot plate, I placed the peeled space potatoes, as I’m now calling them, into the pot. I then walked over next to Hunk and picked up the stick which would act as my pestle, then began to grind up the herbs and spices.

“So, what are you working on?” I asked Hunk, glancing at him out of the corner of my eye as I ground up the spices.

“Well, right now, I’m just cutting up this, well, I don’t even really know what to call it. It seems to be a type of fruit that imitates meat a little bit,” he said, gesturing to an oval shaped, mahogany colored fruit that was a lighter shade on the inside with a purple tube running down the center. “It tastes much more savory than sweet, so I was planning on using it as a meat substitute for now. It still has a slight tangy taste though, as if it was infused with a bit of lime. I also found these small fruits with a super sweet inside and a soft outer flesh,” he gestured to a bowl filled with cherry-sized fruits that had an almost magenta skin and a cotton-candy blue inside, with slit on them that revealed the blue center, much like a pistachio. Hunk had punctured some of the fruits with toothpicks to use as utensils instead. As he spoke he had finished cutting up the brown fruit and had placed it in a bowl that had blueberry sized purple berries and what looked like either kale or lettuce.

“It looks good,” I smiled at him, finishing up with my grinding, and going back to my pot. I took a large spoon and poked a tuber in the pot, taking note of how it was significantly softer than before. Turning off the hot plate, I grabbed the handles, only to immediately let go because damn it was too hot to hold. Hunk must have heard the air I sucked in through my teeth when I burned myself because he quickly rushed over to me.

“What happened? Did you hurt yourself? How bad is it? Let me see your hands,” Hunk shot questions at me like rapid fire, concerned for my wellbeing, before grabbing my hands and looking at my palms. Letting out a sigh of relief, he spoke again, “It looks like only a small burn, so you should be fine,” he let go of my hands. “Just, remember to use the oven mitts, okay?”

“Oven mitts?” I asked. He gestured to the counter to the left of the stove, and lo and behold, were two oven mitts. “Oh…whoops.”

I then put on the oven mitts and poured out the water and the boiled tubers into a colander that Hunk had already placed in the sink for me. I put the pot back on the counter and placed the tubers back inside, now free of water. Hunk then grabbed one of the boiled tubers before I began to mash them, saying he wanted to add it to one of his other dishes. I grabbed the ground up herbs and spices and scooped them into the pot, using the pestle to mash the up the tubers and mix in the spices. When I was done with that, I scooped out the mashed tubers into a bowl. They looked more like scrambled eggs than mashed potatoes, but what do you expect when you’re working with space food? Hunk then topped it off with what looked like half of a tiny pear, a tomato with a long, twisted stem, two long-like things with what kind of looked like asparagus in them, and some kind of pink thing. We picked up the three bowls and carried them back to the dining room where we were before. Upon entering the room, I saw Keith’s and Lance’s eyes light up with anticipation as we placed the food in front of them. Hunk then added the boiled tuber that we didn’t mash to the bowl with the large brown fruit in it. It looked like if a twizzler and a macaroni noodle had a baby. Lance let out a little ‘Hah!’ in excitement before the both of them immediately dug in, leaving not a scrap behind.

“Don’t worry, I saved some stuff for us in the kitchen,” Hunk whispered to me. I smiled in gratitude.

“Wow, (y/n)! You’re a really good cook! I know Hunk is the best of the best, I’ve tried his cooking before, but I didn’t know you could cook!” Lance exclaimed, his mouth still full with food so it was a bit hard to understand.

“Oh, no, no, no. I only listened to what Hunk needed me to do; I barely did anything really. So, you should really just be complimenting Hunk.”

“Oh, don’t say that. You made good food that tastes great. I should know; I tried it,” Hunk supported Lance’s claim.

“If you say so…” I muttered out, giving in to their compliments.

“They like the paladin lunch,” I heard Allura say, who had just walked up to Coran who stood off to the side, both of them watching Keith and Lance scarf down the food.

“I don’t want to talk about it,” Coran said, still upset than no one wanted to eat the paladin lunch.

I tuned out the rest of their conversation and just watched the two paladins eat, happy that they actually liked what I made, and weren’t just eating it to be polite. I didn’t get to enjoy the moment for long though because the alarm suddenly started blaring. Lance and Keith shot out of their seats, Lance slurping down the rest of some noodles that I didn’t even know Hunk had put in.

‘Can’t we ever get a break?’

 

 

 

 

**A/N: ONE. MORE. DAY. SEASON 7. BOI. YES. PLEASE. FUCK ME UP. P.S. The reason why none of my paragraphs are indented is because I don everything on Microsoft Word and the indenting format doesn’t carry over and it drives me crazy, but I’m too lazy to go through the entire chapter(s) and fix it. So yeah. Sorry if that was driving you as crazy as it was for me. Also, I honestly have no clue how the Castle’s kitchen works or what is what besides the food goo nozzle and what I think is an oven next to it, so forgive me please. Also, I don’t really know how to cook so yeah. Also, I don’t know when I’ll be able to update next because there’s an essay I gotta write for one of my college classes that’s due in a week, I haven’t even started and I’m like four pages into the book we have to write the essay about, so yeah. And my move in day is in ten days, so I gotta pack. Anyway, thanks for sticking with me, and I hope you’ve enjoyed!**

 

**XOXO**

**~Threbony**


	16. Human Hugs? No. Small Alien Hugs? Yes.

Unedited

 

_____________

Up above the door that lead from the dining room into the hallway, a large screen turned on, showing just outside the entrance of the castle. On the screen, I saw a small lizard I think? But it walked on two legs. I watched it quickly run behind a rock, then slowly poke its head out as the screen zoomed in on its face.

“What is that?” Keith asked.”

“I don’t know what it is,” Allura responded. “Maybe it’s a local Arusian.” The Arusian, now holding its blade, scrambled over to another rock closer to the castle. “He’s approaching the castle.” The Arusian poked his head out again, glancing from side to side, before running to another rock, shouting and waving his sword. He poked his head out from behind this rock too.

“Aw!” Hunk cooed at it.

“Doesn’t look too dangerous,” Lance commented.

“You never know,” Keith shot back, summoning his bayard.

“I wanna pet it,” I mumbled aloud. “Allura,” she looked at me, “can we go pet it?”

“I don’t know if they would appreciated being pet, but let’s go welcome them,” Allura Answered. “Alteans believe in peace first,” she directed to Keith, signaling him to put away his bayard. She then turned back to the door and walked towards it.

“That’s adorable,” Hunk said, quickly following Allura, me right behind him.

“Hey, maybe we can knit him a little sweater!” Lance exclaimed, now right next to me.

“I’m not taking any chances,” I heard Keith say behind me before he began to follow us.

.                                     .                                        .

              “Greetings,” Allura said, slightly bending down to a bush that we were now all looking at. “We know you’re there. No harm will come to you.” The Arusian suddenly shouted and jumped out of the bush, his sword raised and pointed at us.

              “Aw!” Hunk cooed again.

              ‘Gaaaahhh I really wanna pet it. Them. Whoever they are.’

              “Wait! He could be dangerous,” Keith stepped in front of Allura. “Drop your weapon!” He raised his bayard.

              “No one takes Klaizap’s weapon!” Who I assumed to be “Klaizap” said and pointed its weapon at Keith.

              I put a hand on Keith’s right shoulder and he looked over at me. “Keith. Not cool man. Pick on someone your own size,” I said to him. He was still holding that scowl on his face. Sighing, since it seemed I still gotten through to him, I leaned in close and whispered “Hey how ya doing lil momma let me whisper in your ear*His sword is made of stone and we literally have a castle that can shoot lasers. Chill.” Reluctantly, Keith lowered his bayard.

              “Please, kind sir, accept my most humble apologies,” Allura said, looking down towards the Arusian.

 The Arusian let out a little ‘huh?’ and slightly lowered its weapon, a bit confused. He then stood straight, his weapon now pointed towards the ground, “I am Klaizap, bravest of our warriors. Our village is over Gazrel Hill.”He gestured to the left. “I come seeking answers as to why the Lion Goddess is angered with her followers.”

“Followers?” Coran questioned.

“Lion Goddess?” Hunk asked.

“The on the ancients spoke of,” Klaizap gestured to a rock with an anthropomorphic lion (it looked more like a tiger though) wearing a dress carved in, along with a few kneeling Arusians.

“What makes you think she’s angered?” Allura asked.

“Destruction is everywhere,” Klaizap responded, sweeping his arm through the air. “In the past few suns, fire has rained from the heavens and a giant has danced in the sky.” He kept doing gestures to accentuate his point as he spoke. It was really damn cute.

“I think he’s talking about Voltron,” Hunk whispered to Lance.

“Yeah I got that,” Lance said blatantly.

“You have not angered the Lion Goddess,” Allura reassured him.

              “How can you be certain?” Klaizap asked.

              “Because I am Allura and this is my castle.”

              “Klaizap gasped and bowed. “Lion Goddess!”

              “Please, bravest warrior, take us to your village so that we may meet our neighbors.”

              “What about our mission to get off this planet and fight Zarkon?” Keith questioned Allura’s decision.

              “Part of the paladin’s mission is to spread peace and diplomacy,” Allura answered. “Arus has been our host for 10,000 years. These people deserve our thanks.”

.                              .                                     .

              Soon after that, we had flown the blue, red, and yellow lions over to the Arusian village, where we were greeted with some of the local music. It mainly consisted of woodwinds and percussion. Laughter filled the air as Hunk handed some white spheres of something I don’t know of, Coran was hugging an Arusian a little too tightly, and the others just looked at them and smiled. Except for Keith, that is. I just stood a little off to the side and watched all the little Arusians walking around.

              “”Oh, Lion Goddess,” an Arusian, who I assume to be the leader or an elder, approached Allura, “I, King of Arusians, formally beg your forgiveness.” He put his hands together as if he was praying, “Please, have mercy on us and accept our traditional Dance of Apology as atonement for our wrongdoings.” The other paladins and Allura looked at each other, seemingly confused. The King clapped twice and an Arusian girl quickly ran up in front of him. “Commence Dance of Apology! Hoorah!” A horn sounded and the Arusians began cheering as a drum beat picked up, and the Arusian girl began dancing.

              “Please, there’s no need for this,” Allura said, interrupting the dance.

              “Moontow, halt!” The king commanded, making Moontow balance on one leg, the music immediately cutting out. “The Goddess has refused the apology. Start the sacrificial fire.” A large bonfire suddenly lit up behind the crowd of Arusians, causing some of them to scream. “We must throw ourselves in.”

              “No!” Allura shouted, reaching her hand out. “No sacrifices!”

              “So, we may proceed with the dance?” The King asked, smiling.

              “That’s a better alternative.”

              “The King clapped again, the music returned, and Moontow continued her dance. When she finished, she bowed, the rest of the Arusians bowing as well.

              “Oh, my!” Allura exclaimed.

              ‘Ummmm what do we do now? I’ve never been bowed to before, so I don’t really know what to do,’ I thought to myself.

              “Please, please, rise,” Allura told the Arusians. “Thank you for that, but I am not a great being worthy of your worship. I accidentally put you all in danger. It is I who should be apologizing to you. I am Princess Allura and these are the Voltron Paladins.” At this point, I started to tune her out, preferring to look at all the cute little Arusians instead.

              ‘They’re so small! I just wanna pick ‘em up and hug ‘em!’ I started making those “cuteness overload” squealing sounds in my head. God, I hope they’re just in my head. I don’t want to have to explain my squealing to the others. I was snapped out of my stupor when the Arusians began cheering and approaching us. One came up to me and held onto my legs. I knelt down beside them and they jumped on me, hugging me tightly. Before I knew it, three other Arusians joined in, knocking me onto the ground.

              “Ahhhh, you’re all so cute!” I exclaimed, giggling all the while. The four Arusians were smiling and giggling with me.

              I looked around, seeing the Alteans and the three other paladins hugging and playing with the Arusians, heck even Keith was! I felt my lips tug into a smile as a warm, fuzzy feeling arose in my chest.

              ‘They all look so happy… I’m glad.’

 

 

_ _ _ _

*I am so sorry for that, I couldn’t resist

 

 

A/N: One, sorry but I’m finally adjusting to college, I experienced my first relationship and then ended it two weeks later because it stressed me out and gave me anxiety and a slew of other things. Second, HOLY FUCK there are soooo many of you now, thank you so much!!! There’s more than 350 of you, damn! Thank you so much, fall break starts on Friday, so expect a new update soon!

XOXO

~Threbony


	17. Can I use the Tornado Drill for an Earthquake?

Unedited

____________ _______________

              “Hey, Allura?” I tapped on her shoulder.

              “Yes, what is it, (y/n)?” She asked, glancing back to look at me.

              “I think I’m gonna go and wander a bit, okay?”

              “Alright, but may I ask why?”

              “I just- this is just a little too much social interaction all at once. I need a little break. Y’know, some alone time.”

              “Alright, just make sure you are not gone for too long.”

              “Gotcha. I just need a couple minutes. I’ll be back soon,” I smiled at her and turned around, heading out towards the edge of the Arusian village.

              ‘Hah…this is so much better. Nice fresh air, not having to constantly interact with people. Don’t get me wrong, I like people, and I like hugs, I just don’t like hugging strangers and I don’t like talking to a huge crowd of people in a very condensed amount of time. It’s way too stressful,’ I thought to myself, taking a seat on the grass at the outskirts of the village.

              With a small sigh, I laid down on the grass and closed my eyes, the stress of social interaction finally leaving me. So I just laid down in the grass, not sleeping, just feeling the gentle breeze against my face and hearing the rustles of the grass.

              _“Hello?”_ I heard a voice, belonging to Shiro, come through the radio in my suit.

              _“Shiro?”_ I heard Allura question.

_“Where is everyone?”_

              It was then the ground began to rumble beneath me. Thinking it was an earthquake, I quickly flipped onto my stomach and covered the back of my neck, like you’d do in a tornado drill. Is this what you’re supposed to do in an earthquake? I don’t know. Just trying to protect my neck from potential falling objects. Like stuff from alien trees. I don’t know what’s in alien trees, so I’m gonna protect my neck. For all I know, there could be flying scorpions ready to pounce out of a tree near me. I then heard a whole bunch of commotion and shouting coming back from the center of the village. Taking my chances, I glanced up, seeing a crowd of Arusians quickly running to somewhere else with Allura pointing them in the right direction. I saw Hunk go with them until Keith grabbed him and pulled him back. Beginning to stand up, I was quickly brought back down to my knees as an even more powerful tremor shook with great intensity, before fading out a few seconds after. Standing up again, I saw the other paladins plus the Alteans already running back towards the castle. Following their lead, I quickly ran towards them, trying to catch up. Yeah, that didn’t happen. I’m not the most “physically fit.”

              By the time I got back to the castle, the Alteans were in the control room, the paladins were nowhere in sight, and I was out of breath, ready to collapse. I looked like Miguel and Tulio after they climbed all those stairs up to the big temple. Staggering my way over to the bridge, I went through that whole convoluted process of getting to my lion. B the time I was finally in Rossa, the other lions were already long gone.

              ‘I guess I assumed right thinking the paladins went to their lions. But what for? Hmmm.’

              _“Lay down some covering fire so they can get out of there!”_ I heard Keith’s voice through the radio in my helmet.

              “Wait, what’s goin’ on? Where is everybody?” I asked since I don’t know what’s going on, and I don’t know how they know what’s going on.

              _“We’re over by where the crashed Galra ship was,”_ Pidge replied _. “There’s this huge Galra robot attacking us!”_

              “Alright, I’m coming your way,” I replied, even though I still have no idea where I’m going. “Hey Rossa,” I muttered, “think you can get us to the others?” Silence. “I’ll take your silence as a yes.”

              With that, I took off out of the hangar, flying upwards to get a bird’s eye view and find out where the others were. It only took a couple seconds before I spotted them a little way northwest of me. I rushed over as fast as I could.

              “Hey Rossa, since you seem to like rushing into things, what do you say to tackling this… um… thing?” I felt a surge of confidence from the lion, affirming her desire to wreck this robot.

              With a wide smile, I pushed the handles forward as far as they could go, yelling al the while. Like a war cry. But not. Just ‘AAAAAAAAAH!” Rossa and I quickly slammed into it from behind, effectively knocking it down.

              _“Hey, I was going to do a battle-lion headbutt,”_ I heard Hunk say.

              “Oh, sorry ‘bout that,” I replied, feeling only a little sorry and also a little jostled because that was pretty fun, but it kinda hurt. I then flew my lion upwards to join Lance and Keith.

              _“You guys okay down there?”_ Keith asked Shiro and Pidge.

 _“Still alive for now,”_ Shiro responded, his, Hunk’s, and Pidge’s lions joining the three of us.

              ‘I’ve been dead for years,’ I thought, making sure that I did not say that aloud.

              _“Are the Galra behind this?”_ Hunk asked.

              “Well, it’s color scheme is purple, black, and gray, so yes, I’d assume so,” I replied. “And it seems like it wants to kill us. That too.”

               
              _“Like (y/n) said, they probably are, but I’ve never seen anything like it,”_ Shiro said.

              _“So, what’s the plan? Shoot at it with everything we’ve got?”_ Lance asked. _“Take out its weapon? Call it names?”_

 _“If we want to take this monster down, there’s only one way to do it,”_ Shiro said. “ _Form Voltron!_ ”

              Our lions all roared, and then rose up higher in the sky and combined. It took half a minute, so I just sat there, twiddling my thumbs as my cockpit rumbled and jostled me around.

              ‘Guess I’m gonna have to get used to this.’

              With that, Voltron landed on the ground with a loud ‘boom!’ and stood up, facing the Galra robot.

              _“Remember, we are one unit, fighting with one goal,”_ Shiro’s voice echoed in my helmet.

              ‘Peace! And! Love!’ I thought to myself. ‘But only sort of. Just no deaths. Then I’m good. And no torture. And no a lot of things.’

              The robot raised its arm and a purple rasengan-like orb charged up at where it’s hand would be. Voltron ran towards it as it reared its arm back. It swung its arm forward, fling the orb straight towards us. Voltron barrel rolled out of the way. It was here that I stopped paying attention to needless things and concentrated on redirecting power to wherever Voltron would need it most. For example, the arms when attacking or the shield when blocking. The red arm reared back to punch, I could hear Keith yelling, so I redirected any unnecessary power to the booster jets on the back of Voltron to gain more momentum, leading to a more powerful punch. The robot caught the arm in its hand? Orb generator? I redirected more power to the green lion to try and give it enough strength to knock the robot over and free the red lion. With a successful hit, the robot stumbled backwards and I reverted power back to normal. Voltron then jumped and smashed its fist down onto the unsteady robot. However, it caught Voltron’s arms and brought the orb back at us. Quickly, I tried to divert power to the chest, where I am, to try and boost the defense since the chest area is the easiest area to hit. However, I couldn’t do it fast enough.

Voltron was essentially body slammed into the ground. My head flung backwards and hit the chair, a solid ‘thunk’ resounding from the impact, me groaning in discomfort all the while. A little dizzy from the impact, I found it hard to focus on what was going on and spent a couple seconds reorienting myself. Before I knew it, the robot rammed its shoulder right into the chest, throwing Voltron backwards. I felt my harness dig into my shoulders and hips, before getting slammed back into the chair when we landed. I was definitely going to have a lot of bruises by the end of this.

              Groaning a little under my breath, I heard Shiro speak up. _“Oh no, the village. We have to protect those people.”_

We were hit once again by the orb and were flung backwards into the Arusian village, but we activated our thrusters and rose up before we could destroy anything. I tuned out the others in favor of focusing on the fight We then flew back towards the robot and past it, leading it away from the village. Voltron then tried to kick the orb, but ended up getting uppercut in the face, leaving us to fall back down. Our shield appeared in front of us before we were punched and knocked back again. I diverted power to the green lion, but we were knocked over once again by the orb. After getting hit one more time, we were finally able to dodge. I heard the others talking and finally decided to tune in.

 _“Listen,”_ Shiro began, _“there’s a loud sound when the orb returns to the base of the weapon, and every third time, that orb needs to charge up. That’s this monster’s weakest point. That’s when we strike.”_

 _“Okay, so what do we do in the meantime?”_ Hunk asked.

 _“Defense!”_ Shiro responded. _“Pidge, (y/n) we need that shield! And we need it strong!”_

With that, the green lion rose the shield while I moved as much power as I could into that shield, strengthening its defense. We blocked the orb, but it pushed us back some. I focused on keeping the power levels as high as I could, for they dropped significantly when we were hit. We were hit two more times before I wasn’t able to stabilize the power in the shield before it was flung away in two halves.

 _“Now!”_ Shiro commanded, causing Keith to charge up his laser as I directed as much power as I could to it, which wasn’t very much due to the three hits we just took.

The laser hit the robot dead on, flinging it backwards and causing an explosion.

“Did we do it? Is it over?” I asked quietly. My question was answered when the robot stood back up again. “I guess not…”

 _“So, now what?”_ Lance asked before we were hit by the orb again.

 _“When I attacked him before, I had a sword!”_ came Shiro’s voice.

 _“Orb. Orb!”_ I heard Hunk shout.

 _“We can’t take another shot like that!”_ Pidge exclaimed.

 _“Wait a second, guys!”_ Keith’s voice came on, _“I think my lion’s telling me what to do.”_

 _“Whatever it is, hurry up and do it! He’s about to fire his third shot!”_ Lance said.

We were tossed around once more before slowly getting up. Then. Voltron formed a sword between the heads of the red and green lion, cutting the robot right in half before it exploded. Cheering resounded from the other paladins while I just stared in shock.

‘Was there… was there anybody in that thing? Did we kill anybody? I don’t… I don’t want to kill anyone.’

We then disassembled Voltron, and the rest of the paladins went back to the castle. I, however, stayed behind, but they didn’t seem to notice. I flew over to the wreckage, fully closed my helmet, and stepped out of Rossa. Looking around, I saw there were chunks of metal everywhere, lots of it still on fire. The ground was scorched black, and it didn’t seem there were any intact pieces of the robot. I then began my search to see if there was anyone or any remnants of a living being in the wreckage.

“I tricorder would sure come in handy right about now,” I mumbled under my breath.

There wasn’t much to look at, the wreckage being in a small concentrated area. After a few minutes of searching, I let out a sigh of relief, not finding any signs of a living being among the wreck. I went back into my lion and flew back to the castle to meet up with the others.

**.                                        .                                        .**

I soon found the others in the docking bay, where they kept all the escape pods. I ran up behind them just as they were saying goodbye to the aliens we had rescued.

“Good luck out there,” Lance wished them.

“Thank you all for everything,” a tall alien bowed to us. “We never dreamed we’d see our families again. But you gave us hope. You gave the Universe hope.”

With that, the aliens took off in the space pod to be reunited with their loved ones once more. We all then turned back to go back to somewhere in the castle. I planned on heading back to my room. Or maybe to try and find an observatory.

“Hey, (y/n),” I looked to my right to see Shiro next to me, “can I ask you something?”

“Oh, um, sure. Shoot,” I replied.

“Why didn’t you come back with us to the castle?”

“Oh, um, yeah, that. I was checking the wreckage to make sure that we didn’t, y’know, kill anybody.”

“But, I don’t think any of the Arusians would have been caught up in the fight, seeing as they were nowhere near most of it,” Shiro said, his head tilted to the side a little bit in confusion towards my motives.

“No, it’s um..” I glanced forward at Allura and stopped walking, facing Shiro. He stopped walking as well. Lowering my voice to a whisper, I told him, “I was looking to see if there were any Galra.” Raising and eyebrow at me, he was about to speak before I interrupted him. “Yes, I know, I probably shouldn’t and you could say I’m being a Galra sympathizer, but even though this is war, I don’t want anyone to die. Not us, not the Galra, not anybody. I know it’s unreasonable and even more so impossible, but if I can prevent a death, I will. All life is precious, and I won’t let something like war change my outlook on that.”

Shiro looked at me, then smiled, “It’s okay. I understand. Now then,” he put his hand on my shoulder, “why don’t we get something to eat? It’s been quite a day.”

“That sounds nice,” I smiled back at him before we walked to the kitchen together to get an early dinner.

 

 

_________________

 

**A/N: Eyy yo, whaddup ya little hunks of burnin’ love? How’s it goin how ya doin’? I hope you’ve enjoyed this semi-long chapter, since the majority of you voted on longer chpaters, so that’s what I’ll be making from now on. Anywho, I don’t have muvh to say except college midterms are next week so I’m freaking out. Oh, for the dialogue, is the reader’s accent annoying to read? (i.e. ‘gonna’ instead of ‘going to’ and ‘doin’’ instead of ‘doing’) If it is, I can change it to proper English text. I just write how I talk. Anyway, I hope you’ve enjoyed and thanks for stickin with me, ya cuties!**

**XOXO**

**~Threbony**


	18. Let's form an opinion

I've got an idea for a reader-insert Boku no Hero Academia story. I have for a while now. Would you guys be interested in me making it? What if I said that this story would still be frequently updated, let's say there'll be an update on this story every Saturday or so. What do you guys think? Should I make a BNHA story? Because I kinda really wanna make it. Please let me know, mkay?

XOXO

~Threbony


	19. All These Traps Remind Me of Scooby-Doo

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This thing got too long to be a single chapter, so it's gon be a 2-parter.

Unedited

 

Takes place post-Balmera, pre-season 2.

 

              It was yet another day of the Castle-ship traveling through space. I found myself in my room, lying in bed, doing jack shit. Like always. Until Allura’s voice came over the intercom, that is.

              “Paladins, please report to the Bridge immediately. We’ve received a distress signal.”

              I quickly threw on my paladin armor and ran down to the Bridge, meeting up with Pidge along the way. Shiro was the only one there before us. Keith, then Hunk, then Lance arrived shortly after.

              “Paladins, we’ve received a distress signal from the planet Sorif. Be prepared for landing and find out what’s wrong.”

              With a nod of our heads, we sat in our respective seats as we approached the surface. Once we were close enough, we got to our lions and flew down to the surface while the Castle-ship stayed in orbit.

              “I’m sending you all the coordinates,” Allura said through the video connection, and sure enough a pair of coordinates popped up on my screen.

              The coordinates led us to a thick portion of forest, so under Shiro’s instructions, we found a clearing nearby to land our lions. The trees were the largest kind I’d ever seen. If they were hollow, you could fit one of the lions in one easily. They seemed to almost scrape the clouds. After we landed, we started on foot to the coordinates, Shiro leading the way. It didn’t take long until we came across what looked like a makeshift home carved into the base of one of the large trees. Knocking on the door made of thin, long branches (it looked like it was thrown together last-minute), we waited half a minute, but no one answered.

              “Hello? Is anyone home? We got your distress signal; we’re here to help,” Shiro explained.

              We waited about another half a minute before the door slowly creaked inwards, revealing the face of an alien being. They were a little under five feet tall, had a wide beige face with black cone-like ears, and had a black nose similar to a dog’s. Their mouth was an upside-down V-shape, and their eyes were wide and round with yellow irises.

              “You said… you’re here to help?” The being questioned hesitantly.

              “Yes, we’re the paladins of Voltron, and we aim to help you however we can,” Shiro said.

              “Then, please, do come in,” they said and opened the door fully for us.

              One by one we entered the carved-out room, the taller people of the group had to bend over a little because the ceiling just barely reached five and a half feet high.

              “What’s your name? And what happened here?” Shiro asked.

              “I am Murh, and my partner, Ehruv and I were sent here from our home planet, Lingan, to do research on the local flora for medicinal purposes. However, two days ago, at our research facility, where we also lived, this place is where the workers stayed while building the facility, there was a large explosion outside. I looked out the window and saw that our ship had been blown to smithereens! Soon after that, Ehruv ran up to me and told me that the Galra were attacking and that I needed to get out of there. ‘What about you?’ I had asked him. He said he needed to get the messenger boy, Nuris, who had come earlier that day to check on our progress out from the main laboratory in the basement. The ground floor is our living quarters and other regular rooms you’d find in a house, you see. All the laboratories and such are in the basement. He said not to worry and kept running towards one of the two stairwells. I quickly ran out of there and made my way here and sent the distress signal soon after. But, Ehruv and Nuris still haven’t made it out of there. Please, I beg of you to get them out of there!”

              “Don’t worry, Team Voltron is on the case!” Lance said enthusiastically.

              “Oh, I can’t thank you enough!” Murh exclaimed.

              “Murh, could you take us to the research facility?” Shiro asked.

              “Well, umm…” Murh hesitated a bit. “O-only if I don’t have to go in.”

              “That’s fine. Thank you, Murh,” Shiro said before we all walked out of there

              Murh led us all deeper into the brush, weaving between the titan trees that towered above us. After about ten minutes of walking, Murh pointed behind one of the trees in front of us. Looking behind it, we were met with the sight of a decently-sized building that was a single floor high.

              “There it is,” Murh stated, “the laboratories are in the basement. Oh, and the entire place is rigged with traps to prevent any unwanted intruders coming and stealing our research.”

              I looked at him and raised an eyebrow.

              “There’s another nation on our home planet, and we’ve had instances in the past where people from their side would infiltrate our research facilities to steal our research for themselves,” Murh explained. “Good luck in there. I’m heading back before any Galra spot us,” and with that he rushed off on his stubby legs.

              Looking back at the building, there didn’t seem to be any Galra stationed outside it, or even nearby.

              “There don’t seem to be any Galra,” Lance commented. “Should we just run in guns blazing?”

              “Maybe let’s try a window, just to be safe,” I countered.

              “Alright, let’s look around the sides of the building for a large enough window,” Shiro said.

              It didn’t take very long before we found a decently small-sized window on the left side of the building. It was about six or seven feet above the ground. However, it would be a tight squeeze that only Pidge and I would be able to fit through.

              “Alright, Pidge, (y/n), do you think you can fit through that window and then get the front entrance open for us?” Shiro asked.

              “Yeah,” Pidge said,

              “Mm-hmm,” I hummed in agreement.

              “Taking them out from the inside; I like it,” Lance said, nodding in approval.

              With that, the other paladins went back around to hide near the entrance as I lifted Pidge onto my shoulders. Pidge took out her bayard and broke through the window, leaving enough of a gap to stick her arm through. She then grabbed the window latch and lifted it, then pulled the window back, lifting it up and out. She then began to climb through, me supporting most of her weight so she wouldn’t fall while climbing in. After she was in, I jumped up and grabbed onto the edge of the window sill. I tried to pull myself up, but I was never good at pull-ups.

              “Hey Pidge?” I called out. “A little help?”

              She came up to me and grabbed my hand, starting to pull me up. “You have a jetpack, try using it,” she grunted out while pulling me up.

              “Oh, right. That’s a thing,” I said, activating my jetpack, giving me the extra oomph I needed to get up into the window. With one more grunt, I pulled myself completely through the window. There wasn’t anything under the window to catch me, however, so I ended up tumbling down on top of Pidge. I didn’t notice this until I opened my eyes after the fall and found myself lying on top of Pidge, my head right next to hers. Panicking because fuck man that was super close contact and I probably crushed the life out of her, I scrambled to my feet and started apologizing.

              “Shit, fuck, sorry, Pidge. Uh, here,” I reached a hand out to pull her up. She grabbed on and I hoisted her to her feet.

              “Don’t worry about it, (y/n),” she said, waving off my apology, “I know you’re clumsy.”

              “Hey- what? I am not!” I defended, even though I totally was. Do you know how many times I’ve stubbed my toe on chairs and door frames? Not to mention that time a fell out of bed and landed on my nose, scoring myself a nose bleed. “Actually, never mind. I definitely am. I’m not prepared enough to win this battle of wits.”

              “It’s not a battle of wits,” she pointed out. “It’s just plain fact.”

              I flicked the back over her head but ended up clutching my finger in INTENSE PAIN because she’s WEARING A DAMN HELMET. “Fucking HELL that HURT!” Pidge looked at me like ‘well what did you expect? I’m wearing a helmet.’ “Ah, shut up.”

              Finally taking the time to look around, we were in a room that had many different closets and tables lining the walls. There was a large wooden tub in the center of the room. On the opposite side of the room from the window we entered through was a door, probably leading to the hallway that connects this door with the rest.

              “All right. Let’s just keep moving. I hope they’re okay…” I mumbled out, my bayard at the ready. ‘Come on Pidge, I set that up perfectly, don’t leave me hanging.’

              “Alright, let’s go,” She responded.

              ‘NOOO PIIIDGEEE!’ I screamed in my thoughts. ‘You were supposed to say, “Friendly Mushroom! Mushy giant friend!” You’ve let me down Pidge.’*

              The ceilings were relatively low, only six feet high maximum, and only about five feet wide. This meant that my weapon would be relatively useless because a scythe is pretty damn big. So, Pidge lead the vanguard. It was also dark, seeing as none of the lights were on. Quickly glancing around, I didn’t see any sort of light switch. Giving up on that, we just used the blue light glowing from our armor and the green light from Pidge’s bayard to light the way, since we didn’t want to potentially alert any Galra sentries with our built-in flashlights. Slowly rounding a corner to the left, we were greeted with the sight of nothing. In the middle of this hallway on the right was the set of double doors that lead to the outside.

              “I thought this place was supposed to be infested with Galra,” I stated.

              “Yeah, this is very uncharacteristic of them,” Pidge added. “If the Galra were here, they’d most definitely be guarding the door on both the inside and outside. It was already suspicious when we didn’t see any sentries swarming the place outside.”

              “Maybe they got what they came for and left?” I offered.

              “I doubt that,” Pidge responded. “If they truly found what they were looking for, they’d probably destroy the place completely and start setting up more bases here to get whatever they found valuable enough to invade.”

              “Yeah…” I trailed off. “So, if the Galra aren’t here, why would Ehruv tell Murh to escape?”

              “That’s what we’re going to find out,” Pidge said. “But we’ve got to get this door open first.”

              “Leave it to me,” I said, activating my bayard.

              “Hold on, I’m going to see if I can access the door from the control panel over there,” she pointed to a box in the wall a little farther down the hallway.

              “Alright, but if it doesn’t work, I’m going to try pushing the door open myself.”

              Pidge looked at it for a minute before she spoke up again, “It looks like the main power’s been cut off. I can’t do anything from here.”

              “All right, I’m gonna try and stick the blade of my bayard between the two door and try and spread the door open a little. That’s when we call the others over to help try and push the doors apart.” I said demonstrating with my hands the entire time, dropping my bayard in the process, ignoring when it clattered to the ground.

              I picked up my bayard and activated it again, now holding it in its scythe form that barely fit in the hallway we were in. I pulled back as much as I could without banging it against the floor or ceiling and brought it down to the crack between the two doors. I missed. So I pulled back and tried again. A swing and a miss. I looked at Pidge sheepishly.

              “Third time’s the charm?”

              She gave me a deadpanned look, so done with my shit. Turning back to face the door, I swung once more and finally got it wedged in between them.

              “Alright. Pidge, call them over while I keep my scythe wedged in here because let me tell you, this thing wants to get out now,” I told her, urgency and strain in my voice. “I don’t know how long I can hold this door open.”

              I heard her voice come from behind me and over the radio in my helmet, “Hey guys, we need your help opening the door. (y/n)’s been able to wedge it open a little bit, but we don’t know how long she can keep it up.”

              “All right, we’re on our way,” I heard Shiro say.

              Pidge came up and started to help push the doors open. It only took about ten seconds before I could feel my scythe begin to slide through the door, meaning the other paladins were now on the other side, helping to budge the two metal sliding doors open. As soon as the gap was wide enough to the point that I could slide my entire scythe through, I deactivated my bayard and helped the others in pushing the doors open. After a few more final grunts, we were able to push the doors far enough apart for the others to get through. As soon as everyone was in, we let go of the doors, causing them to slam shut.

              “Guess we’re not gonna have an easy time getting out that way…” I mumbled.

              “Hey, uh, what happened to the Galra that were here?” Hunk asked.

              “Well, it seems that there may not have been any Galra here in the first place,” I replied.

              “Ever since we got here, we haven’t seen any sign of the Galra, inside or out,” Pidge backed me up. “Even if they found what they were looking for here, then left, they wouldn’t leave the facility in one piece like this.”

              “We should still be cautious,” Shiro stated. “Stay together and try and find the two Linganians who are still inside here. Pidge, can you get any light in here?”

              “No, it seems like the main power’s been shut off, which is why we needed to force the doors open,” Pidge exclaimed.

              “Alright, everyone keep your guard up, and your flashlights on,” Shiro said, and everyone turned on their flashlights, except for me.

              “Wait, we have flashlights?” I asked in surprise.

              “Yeah, right here,” Pidge said, taking my wrist and pressing on the center of the armor around my wrist.

              I pressed that same spot and suddenly a flashlight turned on from that portion of my armor. So now I have a wrist-light. Cool.

              “Alright, gang, let’s get a move on, and look out for traps, too,” I said, looking back down the hallway we came from. “Since this is a T-junction, we should probably split up ~~and look for clues~~ to cover more ground. Pidge and I only saw so much back there,” I gestured to the left corridor.

              “Alright,” Shiro nodded his head, “Lance, Hunk, (y/n), you all head back down the way Pidge and (y/n) came from. “Keith, Pidge, and I will go down the right hallway. If anyone finds anything, contact the everyone else immediately.

              After those last words were said, we split up and went down our respective hallways. So now Lance, Hunk, and I were walking down an abandoned hallway. In the dark. With no windows. Only our flashlights and the faint blue glow the accents of our armor gave off. After passing the door to the room Pidge and I had previously been in, we came across another door to our left. Lance immediately went to open it.

              “Lance, be careful,” I said, “remember, Murh said this place was full of booby traps.”

              “Don’t worry,” Lance replied, turning his head to look at me over his shoulder. “I’ve got this under control.”

              He swung the door open and low and behold, nothing happened. It led to another dark room that was quite narrow, almost as if it was another separate hallway.

              “I wonder where this leads to—WOAH!” Lance screamed as he fell after taking a step forward.

              Without time to think, I grabbed his hand to catch him and pull him back up, but his momentum pulled me down. Expecting to hit the floor, I screamed and braced myself, but impact came a little while later than expected, and I had the wind knocked out of me. Groaning in pain since I had landed on Lance’s legs, I rolled over onto my back. Sighing in relief from not having legs dig into my stomach anymore, I looked up and saw Hunk looking from the doorway which was about maybe fifteen feet up.

              “Hey, are you guys alright?” I heard Hunk ask, worry evident in his voice.

              “Yeah, just a bit of a rough landing,” I replied. “Lance, you okay?”

              Groaning, Lance sat up, “Yeah, I’m good.”

              “It seems like we walked straight through a door to nowhere,” I commented, looking at the four blank walls around us. “There doesn’t seem to be a way back up either. Hey, Hunk!”

              “Yeah?” He responded.

              “You might have to go on without us,” I explained, “there doesn’t seem to be an easy way up.”

              “No, no, no, no, no, no,” Hunk started waving his arms and shaking his head ‘no.’ “I’m not going to leave you two behind in this place.”

              “Don’t worry about us, Hunk,” Lance spoke up, “We’ll find a way out of here soon, so you just keep on going. We have to find the two other aliens.”

              “Alright, fine, but as soon as you find a way out, let me know,” Hunk said, giving us a stern look.

              “We will,” I said, “Oh, and we should probably tell the others about this,” I turned on my radio and began to speak, “Hey guys, so, uh, Lance and I went through a door to nowhere, so now we’re stuck in a pit. Which also means Hunk’s alone. We’re currently working on a way out.”

              “Okay, just be careful,” I heard Shiro’s voice come through. “And don’t hurt yourselves trying to get out.”

              “Will do,” I said before cutting off communications. “We’ll catch up to you later, Hunk.”

              “Alright, be careful down there,” Hunk said as he finally walked away.

              “Now to find a way out…” I mumbled, now standing and shining my flashlight around the room, looking for any way to get out.

              “I’m gonna check and see if our jetpacks can get us out,” Lance said as he activated his jetpack and jumped up. He only reached about a foot higher than he could when he jumped without the jetpack. He let out a sigh of disappointment.

              “The gravity is too strong here,” I commented. “Our jetpacks won’t be of much use.”

              “Well, I guess I’ll feel the walls for any secret passageways,” he said, “Since this place is so full of traps, there might just be some secret entrances.”

              “I’ll look higher up then.”

              A couple minutes passed of Lance feeling around the walls and me shining the flashlight around the higher half of the pit until we came across something.

              “Hey, Lance, look,” I said, pointing my flashlight to a place on the wall, about twelve feet or so above the ground. “It’s a vent grate, and it looks big enough for us to fit in.”

              “So how are we gonna get up there?” he asked. “Are you gonna stand on my shoulders?”

              “No way in hell, my balance is shit,” I said, knowing that I’d fall off as soon as I stood up on his shoulder. “Let me think,” I said, my hand going to my chin as I thought about how to get up. “I got it!” I exclaimed, turning to face Lance. “First, you gotta shoot that grate off; aim for the screws in the corners. Then, you’re gonna Alley-oop me up. Y’know, like in _Rocky and Bullwinkle_.”

              “Alley-oop you?” He asked, his head tilting to the side a bit in confusion.

              “Like this,” I bent down in a position that almost looked like a lunge, my left foot in front of my right. “You’re gonna lace your fingers together but keep your palms open to create a foothold for the other person, in this case: me,” I laced my fingers together and opened my palms, placing my hands a little lower to the right of my left knee. “As soon as you have a solid hold on the person’s foot, you’re gonna stand up and raise the person’s foot at the same time, launching them up into the air,” I pushed off the ground to get into a standing position while pulling my hands up as fast as I could to simulate launching something. “Make sense?”

              “Yeah, I guess?” Lance still looked confused.

              “I’d offer to Alley-oop you, but I think I’d probably end up letting you fall instead,” I said. “So, just try your best!” I gave him a wide smile and a big thumbs-up.

              “Okay, but if you fall, that’s completely on you.”

              “Agreed.”

              Lance got out his bayard and shot at the grate a few times before it clattered to the ground in front of us. I winced at the loud noise in the otherwise silent room.

              “Alright, you ready to Alley-oop me?” I asked Lance.

              “Yeah, but how am I gonna get up?” He asked.

              “Don’t worry, I have a plan.”

              “If you leave me behind, I’ll never forgive you.”

              “Curses! Foiled again! You’ve caught me red-handed once again, detective Lance!” I joked around. “But, no, I’m not going to leave you behind, don’t worry. Now, let’s do this.”

              “Okay, here we go,” Lance got down to the almost-lunge position and laced his fingers together.

              “Now, I forgot to mention this but to build momentum, I’m gonna be running at you,” I mentioned while backing up and then turning on my jetpack to get some extra oomph.

              “Wait, what?” Lance asked, snapping his head to my direction.

              “Don’t worry about that, just focus on launching me!” I said, already beginning to run at him.

When I was about a foot away, I jumped forward, my left foot landing in Lance’s hands. Without a moment to spare, he quickly, launched me up towards the now-open ventilation shaft. Reaching my arms out, I grabbed onto the edge of the shaft, using the jetpack to help boost myself up. I swung my right leg up and got the foot into to shaft, leaving me at an awkward angle, a foot, a hand, and a whole arm inside the vent, one hand grabbing onto the ledge, the arms still sticking out, and an entire leg dangling below. Pushing my body further into the rectangular cave, I was then able to get my full leg in. I then tried to get my other leg in, since I was trying to position myself where my head would be outside the ventilation shaft so I could reach down to try and get Lance up. After half a minute of struggling, I was able to get my other leg in at the price of my arms not being able to fit inside the vent. Now handing out of the vent by my waist, I reached my hand behind me and pushed backwards, sliding more of myself into the shaft. Sighing in relief, I turned off my jetpack and went almost completely limp since after a minute or two of intense struggling, I was finally able to relax without the fear of falling all the way back down.

“Okay, Lance, I hop you have good upper body strength,” I said, getting my bayard out.

Reaching my hand out of the vent once more, I activated my bayard, turning it into a scythe. I turned the scythe so that the blade would face me, meaning that I would have to now hold my bayard by the dull side of the blade, which wasn’t particularly easy since I couldn’t just wrap my hands around it. I shimmied my body as far to the right as possible and then stuck the blade as deep into the bottom of the vent as I could.

“Okay, Lance,” I said getting his attention as I poked my head out the vent. “You’re gonna have to activate your jetpack and jump to grab onto the handle of my scythe.” There was about a seven-foot distance from the end of my scythe’s handle to the floor. “You’re gonna have to then pull yourself up it until you’re close enough to the vent where I can then grab you and pull you in the rest of the way.”

Alright, here I go,” Lance activated his boosters and jumped up, grabbing onto the end of the scythe’s handle.

He started shimmying his way up the length of the scythe, and when he got close enough, I stuck my right hand out of him to grab, my left keeping the scythe steady.

“Ow! (y/n), your flashlight!” Lance shouted, wincing as the light shone right into his eyes.

“Ah! Sorry, Lance!” I said as I brought my hand back and turned off the flashlight, then stuck it back out for him to grab.

As soon as he grabbed my hand, I started pulling him up into the vent until he got a good portion of his upper body into the vent. Sliding backwards to give him more room, I deactivated my bayard and put it back where it belonged. Still moving backwards into the vent, I didn’t let go of Lance’s hand until I was sure he made it all the way in the vent.

“Phew, okay, let’s get a move on,” I said, starting to turn around, but I realized that the vent was too narrow to maneuver in that way. “Umm, I can’t turn around. I didn’t think this through.”

“Guess we’ll have more time just staring into each other’s eyes, then.”

“I can barely see your face; it’s so dark in here,” I gave him a deadpanned look. “I can only sort of see your face from the blue glow coming from our armor. It feels more like if you put a flashlight beneath your chin when telling ghost stories. But I’m gonna start backing up now. Hopefully, we’ll get to an exit soon.” I started crawling backwards down the ventilation shaft, Lance following me.

“So, whatcha wanna talk about?” Lance asked me.

“Oh, I don’t know,” I answered back. “You got any preference?” I tried to look over my shoulder to see where I was going. I hit my head on the wall. Guess I’m not going to be able to see where I’m going.

“How about, if you could be anywhere in the universe tomorrow, where would you go?” He asked me.

“Home,” I replied with no hesitation. “I’ve got loose ends I’ve gotta finish up. I don’t know if you heard, but, I was whisked away suddenly. I came across the purple lion and then I was here with you guys. I was separated from my best friend, and I left them behind without getting the chance to find them, or even say goodbye to them or my family. They have no idea what happened. And I feel like with everyday that passes, I’m forgetting about one more person, about one more face. And it scares me, Lance. It honestly scares me.”

“Yeah, I know what that’s like,” Lance answered looking down.

Our kind-of deep talk was interrupted by me hitting something with my foot.

“Hey, Lance?” I said, Lance humming to say he heard me. “Can you use your flashlight to see if I hit a wall or another grate?” I asked as I flattened myself out to lay on my stomach.

“Sure, hold on,” He turned on his flashlight and pointed it behind me. “It’s another grate.”

“Perfect,” I commented, a smile appearing on my face. “Give me a minute to kick it down.” Using the stronger of my legs, I braced myself with my hands and delivered a kick to the grate. It rattled a bit, but nothing happened. About three kicks later, I was able to kick the grate completely out. Hearing it clatter to the ground, I backed up until my legs were dangling out. I placed my hands on the edge and held on as I lowered the rest of my body out, then fell about two feet before my feet hit the ground.

“Hey, how do I get down without landing on my face?” Lance asked, his head poking out of the vent.

“You don’t,” I said, giving him a blank look as if it was obvious. He looked at me appalled, as if I was the meanest person alive. “Relax, I’m joking. Just, fall and I’ll catch you. Or, I’ll try at least.”

“All right just don’t drop me,” he said as he started climbing out of the vent head first.

“No promises,” I mumbled out under my breath, reaching my arms out as if to catch him bridal-style.

With a scream, he fell fast first into me, knocking me over. I still caught him, but not the way I was expecting to.

“Ugh, Lance, you’re crushing me,” I groaned out, his weight crushing me.

“Sorry, sorry,” he apologized before rolling off of me.

“It seems like we’re in a hallway of sorts,” I observed, now sitting up.

              “All the more reason to keep moving,” Lance said, who was now standing and offering it to me.

              Grabbing his hand, he hoisted me up onto my feet. Looking around, I noticed that it was just as dark here as it was in the vent. Turning my flashlight on, I motioned for Lance to lead the way. I already led in the vents, so it was his turn now. He also turned on his flashlight and proceeded to walk down the hall; I was following close behind. It was barren of all sound besides our footsteps, but I kept getting that tingling feeling as if someone was behind me and following me. I kept glancing over my shoulder every few seconds, but I never saw anything. Brushing it off as my imagination, I kept following Lance. That is, until I heard something scuttering right next to my ear. Screaming, I ran past Lance and just kept running because I don’t know what the hell that scuttling was, and if it was just a bug, there’s no way I would let it touch me. We don’t know the insect life on this planet. As far as I know, the bugs here could be covered in a strong acid or a lethal poison. I didn’t stop screaming and running, taking turn after turn without stopping. Then I tripped because I tried running up a flight of stairs. That shut me up for good. Rubbing my now sore chin, I stood back up.

              “Lance?” I called out, looking behind me. There was nobody there. “Shit, you did it again, (y/n). You got yourself lost. Well, if you originally fell down a pit, climbed through a vent that never traveled up, then that means that if I go up these stairs, I might find everyone else. Besides Lance, that is. Okay, it’s settled. Sorry Lance, but I’m going upstairs. I should probably call in.” I activated my radio and began to speak, “Hey guys? You all doing okay? Oh, and sorry for running, Lance. Got a little too spooked.” Nobody answered. “Guys?” Still no response. “Anybody?” Silence. “Well. Shit.”

              With my flashlight pointed in front of me, I was about to go up the stairs when a hand grabbed my shoulder. I shrieked and spun around.

              “Woah, it’s just me,” Hunk spoke, his hands up in front of him, moving them back and forth in an attempt to calm me. “Well it seems you got out, but where’s Lance?”

              “Oh, about that,” I looked to the side while poking the tips of my index fingers together. “I kind of, sort of, got spooked and bolted. Leaving Lance behind. Unintentionally, mind you,” I snapped back to Hunk, waving my hands around in a flustered yet panicked manner.

              “Then I guess we should go find him,” Hunk said, looking back in the direction where I had presumably run from. He was right.  “Y’know, back down the dark, scary hallway… I just had a thought, actually, let’s not.”

              “I know how you feel Big Cat,” I put my hand on his shoulder. “I don’t want to go back down there either. But at least we’ll have each other now, right?” I smiled at him. He smiled back and nodded his head.

              “Well, the sooner the better, I guess,” Hunk mumbled out, he and I now trying to find the way back to Lance because I couldn’t remember the exact route I took.

              When we came across a fork in the path, we decided to go right because fuck it. I don’t know which way I came from. Fifty-fifty chance of getting it right, so might as well quit dawdling and get moving.

              “Hey, Hunk?” he looked over at me. “I was trying to contact the others earlier, but it doesn’t seem to be working.”

              “Yeah, I noticed that too,” he said. “I think the walls in the basement are lined with something that blocks radio waves. I haven’t found the time to look into what exactly it is, though.”

              “That means attempting to contact anybody else is pretty much hopeless, huh.” I murmured out. “Guess we’ll just have to do it the old-fashioned way,” I said, stopping and then clearing my throat.

              “What do you mean, ‘old-fashioned?’” Hunk looked at me suspiciously, as if I was about to do something stupid. He was most definitely right.

              Taking a deep breath, I yelled “LANCE! WHERE ARE YOU?! SHIRO! KEITH! PIDGE! HEL-?!”

              Hunk slapped his hand over my mouth, “(y/n), what do you think you’re doing?!” He hissed through clenched teeth, trying to keep his voice down. “You don’t know who else might be down here? What if there’s somebody who wants to kill us?”

              Taking his hand away from his mouth, I whispered, “I highly doubt that, but shush and listen to see if we got a response.” I cupped a hand around my ear. That didn’t really work because of my helmet, but I kept at it for more dramatic effect.  After a few moments of silence, I sighed and gave up. “I guess nobody heard me.” I started trudging forward again.

              “Hey, it’ll be okay,” Hunk comforted me, “Well fin the others soon, I’m sure of it.”

              “Thanks Hunk,” I smiled at him. “I just hope you’re right. But, if the Galra aren’t here, what do you think really happened?”

              “Who knows, but maybe they made something dangerous, like a toxic gas,” Hunk responded before his face suddenly grew pale. “Now I really hope it wasn’t that. Because what if it was a slow-acting poison. What if we die as soon as we walk outside?!”

              “Woah, calm down Hunk, I’m sure there’s no poisonous gas floating around,” I reassured him. “If there was, we’d already be dead. And since you’re still alive (cause I sure ain’t), that means we’re safe.”

              “Okay, yeah, you’re right!” Hunk exclaimed, now filled with determination. “We’re perfectly safe.”

              As soon as he said that, I felt the ground sink beneath my right foot. Glancing down, it seems that I had stepped on some sort of panel in the floor. Hearing rumbling above me, I saw cracks begin to appear in the ceiling. I had seen enough movies to know where this was going.

              “Avalanche!” I yelled, shoving Hunk away just as the ceiling gave way, causing hoards of rocks and rubble to crumble down. Trying to get out of the way, I leaped, but I was unsuccessful. I had landed on my stomach, and my left leg was caught under the rubble. Groaning in pain I looked behind me and could clearly see that the entire calf of my left leg was caught under the rubble. Grunting, I tried pulling myself out but to no avail.

              “Hunk?” I called out. “Hunk where are you?”

              “I’m on the other side of the rubble,” I heard his muffled voice come from behind me. “Are you okay? What’s happening over there?”

              “My leg’s caught under all this, but other than that I’m fine,” I called back, shouting over my shoulder.

              “I can’t get you out of there, (y/n),” I heard Hunk say, desperation and guilt evident in his tone, “The pile reaches the ceiling, and it looks too unstable to be able to take it apart without having the rest of it crush either you or me.”

              Looking behind me, I could see small portions of sunlight looking through the ceiling. “Okay Hunk, listen, the rest of this hallway could collapse at any time; I don’t know how this affected the rest of the hallway’s integrity,” I told him. “You need to get out of here. You guys can come and get me afterwards.”

              “No, not happening. I am not leaving you here all alone.”

              “Well you’re gonna have to because if you end up getting stuck, then neither of us will be able to go get help.” After I said that, it was silent for a minute.

              “Okay, fine, but I’m only leaving to get help and hopefully find a way over to your side,” Hunk finally complied. “Just promise me that if anything happens, scream and I’ll come running. Got it?”

              “Got it,” I replied smiling a little bit. ‘He’s such a team mom; I love it.’ “Now go on, get out of here.”

 I heard his footsteps retreating quickly. So, I just sat there, and waited. Shining my flashlight around, I didn’t see anything of importance, just the empty gray hallways. Sighing, I rested my head on my arms and waited for help to come. It didn’t take long before I heard footsteps approaching from farther down the hall.

“Hello? Who’s there?” I called out. ‘Wait. Shit. I shouldn’t have done that. That’s the number one thing you’re not supposed to do in horror movies.’

“(y/n)?” I heard a voice call out, which I recognized as Shiro’s. “(y/n), where are you?”

“Shiro!” I shouted. “I’m over here!”

Looking ahead, I saw Shiro, followed by Keith, round the corner. Waving my arms frantically, I seemed to grab their attention. As soon as Shiro spotted me, he quickly jogged over frantically, concern and worry in his face. He must’ve saw my leg.

“Are you alright? What happened?” He asked as soon as he got over to me, quickly dropping on one knee. Keith stood behind Shiro, also looking at my leg.

“I set off a trap that made the ceiling collapse,” I said, not being able to look him in the eyes. “I kind of got stuck under it all.”

“Don’t worry, we’ll get you out of this,” Shiro said before going over to where my leg was stuck, Keith now getting down onto one knee to help Shiro remove my leg from the rubble. “Okay, we’re going to lift up the rubble as much as we can without it all collapsing onto us. As soon as you can move your leg, you’re going to have to pull it out as quick as you can, okay?”

Nodding my head, I said, “Ready when you are.” I braced my palms on the floor, ready to push myself forward as soon as Shiro gave me the signal.

Feeling the weight on my leg lessen a little, I heard Shiro shout “Now!”

Without hesitation, I shot myself forward and pulled my leg out. As soon as I was sure I was clear of the rubble, I stood up. Well, _attempted_ to stand up, I should say. As soon as I put weight on my left leg, it crumpled beneath me, causing me to fall forward. Before I could hit the ground, I felt a pair of strong arms wrap around me and pull me up.

“Careful, (y/n), we don’t know how badly injured you are,” Shiro said, who I now deduced to be the one who caught me from falling.

“Okay, I’ll be careful,” I said. “I just don’t know how well I’ll be able to walk.”

Shiro wrapped my left arm around his neck and held it there, his other arm holding me around my waist to support me in walking.

“Thanks, Shiro, and sorry for causing so much trouble,” I thanked him and apologized sheepishly.

“Hey, there’s no need to apologize,” he said, looking down at me. “I’m just glad you’re okay.”

Nothing much was said after that. Keith was leading the way with his flashlight since Shiro and I were both busy trying to make sure I wouldn’t fall flat on my face. After a couple minutes of silence, the hallway opened up into a large dark room with high ceilings. When Keith shined his flashlight at the wall, I had to squint because it reflected off of it and hit me in the eyes. Walking up to the wall, Keith put his hand on it.

“It’s glass,” he pointed out. “And I think there’s another room behind it, possibly an observation deck. It’s too dark to tell.”

After that we continued down the hall. We were alone in this large room, or so I thought until I felt a hot breath on the back of my neck.

“Shiro, did you just blow on my neck?”

“No, I didn’t,” Shiro replied, looking at me strangely. “Why?”

I didn’t answer him. I removed my arm from around his neck and turned around. I was met with the sight of a large silhouette. Following its form up, I was met with a pair of large, glowing red eyes near the ceiling.

“Holy shit…” I mumbled out, Keith and Shiro now also looking at the creature.

When Keith shined his flashlight at it, it was as if nothing happened. It was made of pitch black, dark enough where it seemed as if your hand would be stained black if you touched it.

“GET. OUT.”   A deep, gruff voice bellowed around us, echoing in the large room. We were stunned to silence, frozen in place. “GET! OUT!” It screamed at us, beginning to charge at us.

Without a second thought, I began running, ignoring the pain in my left leg that caused me to almost fall and trip more than once. My mind was filled with panic, I couldn’t think about anything else. I faintly heard my name being called behind me, but it didn’t register. I was too focused on getting out of there. So, I ran, and I ran, and I didn’t stop.

 

 

 

 

*Please tell me you’ve all seen _Avatar the Last Airbender_ , please, it’s such a good series that was my childhood.

 

**A/N: This was going to be all in one chapter, but this is bout two thirds of the way through and it reached 14 pages, or seven thousand, two hundred words. So, yeah. Two part special. But anyway, I hope you’ve enjoyed and thank you all so much! As soon as I finish up the rest of this special, we’ll be back on the actual story line. I hope you’ve enjoyed so far, and thanks for stickin with me~**

**XOXO**

**~Threbony**


	20. I was Expecting Scooby-Doo, not This!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Part 2 of the special!

Unedited

Part 2 of the special!!! TW: insignificant character death (one of the Linganians dies)

 

              I didn’t stop until I had completely run out of breath, almost collapsing onto my knees. I laced my fingers together on top of my head to help get my breathing in check, opposed to bracing myself on my knees. It was dark in the hallway, and I couldn’t see much since my flashlight was directed at the ceiling.

              “HOLY FUCK!” I screeched when I felt a hand grab my arm.

              Whipping out my bayard, I swung it and myself around to attack whoever was behind me but was halted when a pair of hands grabbed my arms and stopped me short. Looking up at whoever stopped me, I was met with the face of Keith, whose eyes were looking at me like I was crazy.

              “Hey, calm down, (y/n),” he said in a surprisingly gentle voice. He didn’t let go of my arms until I had lowered them and then put my bayard away. “Are you okay?”

              “Yeah, yeah I am,” I panted out, still out of breath. “This place just has me on edge, I guess. It’s like a haunted house.” I looked up and down the halls with my flashlight this time around but didn’t notice anything worth mentioning. And then it dawned on me. “Keith! We forgot Shiro! We gotta go back for him!” I took off running but then realized that I had no idea where I was going. I halted in my tracks and turned back to Keith. “Um, you wouldn’t happen to know where Shiro is, would you?”

              “No, we were separated from him when whatever that thing was charged,” he said before walking up to me. “But Shiro can take care of himself, so we should keep going. The sooner we run into someone else, the better.”

He began to walk further down the hall and banked left when coming across a crossroads. I jogged a little to catch up with him and then matched his pace. We walked in silence for a short while because I really didn’t know what to say to Keith. We hadn’t really had time to get to know each other. Well, better late than never I suppose. And now is a perfect opportunity to do so since there’s literally nothing else to do but walk in silence.

“So, Keith…” I trailed off, linking my hands together behind my back. “What do you consider fun?”

“What...?” He looked at me like I was crazy. His response was completely justified.

“I don’t know, just trying to spark a conversation with weird ambiguous questions.”

“O…kay?”

“Alright, next question: if you could decide what color your tongue would be a for a week, what color would you choose?”

“Why would I want to change the color of my tongue?”

“Because you can?” He still looked at me strangely. “Well, I’d choose (f/c). What about you?”

“I still don’t know why I’d change it.”

“Fine, next question. What’s your favorite animal?”

“Hippos.”

“Hippos?” He nodded. “That’s adorable. I’m sorry, that’s just too fucking cute.”

“Mmm,” Keith hummed out, walking a little bit faster.

I couldn’t resist. I took a deep breath and “I want a hippopotamus for Christmas~ Only a hippopotamus will do! Don’t want a crocodile or—” I was cut off by Keith slamming his hand over my mouth.

“Shh,” He shushed me, “Look, we’re going down those stairs and we don’t know what’s down there. So, we’ve got to keep quiet, okay?”

I nodded my head before he removed his hand from my mouth and started heading down the flight of stairs a few paces in front of us. Heading down the stairs, we were met with a long hallway that had two doors on either side.

“You take the first door on the right, and I’ll take the one on the left,” Keith whispered to me before going through his respective door.

Nodding, I opened the door on the right and entered. Shining my flashlight around the room, it appeared to be something akin to a laboratory of sorts, just with some other tools and such that I didn’t recognize. Looking to the left, I took note of the length of the room, it being quite long, at least twice the length of the rooms we had seen on the ground floor. Cautiously, I walked down the length of the lab, stepping as gently and quietly as possible. After all, you never know who or what might be lurking in the shadows. Coming close to the end of the lab, I noticed another door on the left. Taking one more look around for anything important, I went through the door. I was back in the hallway we started out in, and the second door on the left side was right in front of me. It suddenly swung open, and I grimaced when a bright light was shone in my eyes.

“Gah! Ow, hey, stop that!” I whisper yelled.

“Oh, sorry,” Keith muttered, pointing his flashlight to the floor instead of my eyes.

“Find anything interesting?” I asked, blinking my eyes to try toS get rid of the spots in my vision.

              “No, at least nothing that I could tell,” he shook his head. “C’mon, let’s keep moving.”

He started walking down the hall, me following close behind. Keith stopped and held his arm out to stop me when we heard some kind of growling come up ahead. Glancing back at me, Keith took out his bayard and activated it. I mimicked him and held my bayard almost completely vertically, the blade side near the ground, pointed away from the two of us. Slowly, we continued down the hall and the growls got louder, but nothing else happened. I wasn’t until we came across what looked like holding cells made of glass that we found out what that noise was. The cell walls ran from floor to ceiling, completely made of glass, one right next to another with only a reinforced pane separating them. There were small glass doors, about five and a half feet high and three feet wide leading to each of the cells. The edges of the doors were lined with what looked like rubber. Near the top of each of the cells was a barred window that had light pouring in, but it seemed like it was through a shaft that led upwards. Inside of most of them were these types of bears? I don’t know what else to call them. They were covered in a deep purple fur and had four legs. They had thin tails that reached down to their knees and stood on all fours at about four feet tall. Their faces were flat, and their eyes were white. Two of these space bears had their faces pushed against the glass walls and were snarling and growling at each other, revealing rows of flat teeth.

As we continued down the hallway, I got a better look at more of these space bears. Most of them were missing limbs or had gashes on their sides. And there was one whose skin and muscles were rotting around the legs, revealing bare bones.

“Holy shit…” I muttered under my breath, not believing what I was seeing.

Feeling a nudge on my arm, I looked up at Keith who gestured with his head to a place down the hall. Looking up ahead, I saw a single glass door that was slightly ajar, blocking a small portion of the hall. Approaching it, nothing seemed to be amiss; no space bears seemed to be out and about. Upon reaching the cell, I looked inside but didn’t see any bear. Until I looked down. There was a body of a Linganian, splayed across the floor. Shoving my bayard back into the thigh of my suit, I ran inside and dropped to my knees next to the creature who was flat on their face. Rolling them over, I instinctively put two fingers on where a human’s pulse would be.

‘Shit, I don’t know where the pulse would be on an alien              ! Ah, um, I guess check their breathing next? They still have to breath through their nose-like thing, right?’ I panicked in my mind before placing their nose-equivalent next to one of the glass walls. ‘If they’re still breathing, their breath should fog up the glass,’ I thought, hoping to god that the alien was still alive. Nothing happened. I jumped when I felt Keith’s hand on my shoulder. I didn’t even notice him approach. “It’s no use,” I spoke quietly. “They’re dead.”

“Do you know what happened?” Keith asked me.

Shining my flashlight on the ground where I found them, I didn’t see any blood so that eliminates getting mauled to death by a space bear. Moving my attention to their mouth, I didn’t see anything resembling foam or blood that would indicate poisoning, assuming that lethal poison would cause the same side affects on these aliens as it did with humans. Opening their mouth to double check, I still didn’t find anything. It wasn’t until I looked a little further down where I found multiple discolorations decorating their neck. Looking more closely, they seemed to be relatively small and egg-shaped. Lining up the finger tips of my left hand with the spots, it was fairly close to a match.

“I think they were strangled to death,” I spoke up before looking back at Keith. He just stared back at me. “Keith, I-I really don’t think the Galra are behind this.”

“How can you tell?”

“Well, assuming they were strangled to death, since there doesn’t seem to be any other explanation, I think it’s safe to assume that the Galra didn’t do this. I mean, why would they take the time to strangle someone to death? It’s a long and inefficient way of committing murder. The Galra are more the type to just shoot until they’re dead.”

“Yeah, that seems about right,” Keith nodded. “But that still leaves the question of who did it and who this is. Since they’re either the messenger or the other scientist, then there’s a good chance the other is still inside. Whoever we find here is probably the one who killed them,” he gestured to the dead Linganian. “We need to find them; let’s go,” Keith grabbed my arm and started running farther down the hall, dragging me with him.

Quickly approaching the end of the hallway, I saw a door with a porthole-window on it. Slowing to a stop behind the door, Keith and I peeked into the room. It looked like another laboratory, almost identical to the one I was in before. Inside was another Linganian who was standing next to one of those space bears that was unconscious on the ground next to them.

“Stay here,” Keith muttered out, still looking through the window while activating his bayard once more.

As soon as the Linganian turned its back to the door, Keith opened the door as quietly as he could, he approached them as I watched from the now open door. He was crouched slightly as he approached them from behind, being as quiet as possible. It seems he wasn’t quiet enough because the Linganian whipped around and shot at Keith who quickly rolled to the right and activated his shield. With the alien now occupied with shooting at Keith and him blocking, I went against Keith’s instructions and ran up to the alien with my bayard and swept it across their ankles with the blunt side. I was able to knock him off his feet but not before getting shot in the shoulder. Luckily, my armor protected me from most of the hit, but it was most definitely going to bruise. Keith ran up and held his bayard’s blade up to his neck. Following Keith’s lead, I held the sharp end of my scythe near his head.

“Why’d you kill them?” Keith demanded.

“Kill them? K-kill who?” The Linganian stuttered, avoiding eye-contact.

“The other Linganian; the one who we found dead in a glass cell. Don’t even try to pin it on the Galra, we know you did it.”

“There were no signs of any Galra being in the area, and strangulation isn’t a method the Galra would use, especially when in the middle of an invasion,” I explained, moving the blade a little closer to their head. “Why’d you do it?”

“I couldn’t allow him to leave!” The Linganian shouted. “Not after all I worked for. Not after what he saw. I couldn’t afford for him to put an end to all my research!”

“So, you’re the other researcher then, and the dead one is—was the messenger…” I muttered out.

The one who I now knew was Ehruv glanced at me before continuing. “If he went back and told them about what I’ve been doing here, that would’ve been the end of this—of me.”

“Does that mean you’ve been conducting illegal experiments?”

“I had no choice! The medicine we’ve been researching to send back to our planet, we didn’t know if they could have possibly had bad effects. These medicinal plants are all foreign to us, and we’ve only had other plants to test these medicines on. I had to make sure that these medicines we’ve created were actually medicine. You can’t tell that without other plants. I couldn’t bring back what we thought to be a cure to a disease when it was actually a poison! You’ve seen the Unars back in the cells. That one with the rotting flesh—that was caused by one of our ‘medicines.’ I couldn’t bring that back to my people! Imagine what would’ve happened if we brought that back when we didn’t even know what it really did!”

“That still doesn’t excuse what you did to that poor Linganian. Even if the results outweigh the risks, that doesn’t make it right. Luckily for us, your partner foiled your plans and sent a distress signal, thinking the Galra were invading,” I reprimanded him.

“And I would’ve gotten away with it too, if it weren’t for you meddling kids!” He shouted back at us. I think I almost cried because he made a Scooby-Doo reference and that made my day.

“C’mon,” Keith hoisted Ehruv up and held his hands behind his back after tossing away his gun. “You’re coming with us.” He started leading hi away as I followed close behind.

“Ah, Ehruv, why aren’t our coms working?” I asked.

“The soil on this planet has a type of abundant metal that prevents radio waves from traveling through it,” he explained, now accepting his fate that he’d been caught.

“Alright, Keith,” he glanced at me over his shoulder. “I’m going to try to contact anybody else on this level and the following levels as well to get everybody to meet us outside the main entrance.”

With a nod from Keith, I went on to contact everyone. Nobody was on the floor we were currently on, but I slowly got in contact with the rest as we got higher. It wasn’t long before we had reached the main entrance where I used my bayard to break down the doors, which worked after a few subsequent hits.

‘Why didn’t I think of doing this earlier when we were trying to get everyone inside?’

After meeting up with everybody, I gave them the run down of what happened, with the Unars (I’m pretty sure they are the space bears), what Ehruv was doing, and what happened to Nuris.

“Then you’re the one who yelled ‘Get out’ at us, aren’t you?” Shiro pointed out.

“’Get out?’ I yelled no such thing. I’ve been in my lab for most of the day, and our facility has no form of com system,” Ehruv explained, looking at us in confusion.

I looked over at Keith and then Shiro, all of us having the same look on our faces: Then what was that? We guided Ehruv back to Murh and explained what happened. In solemnness and disbelief, he accepted the truth and we gave both of them a ride back to Lingan where they cleared up everything with their superiors and sent a team down to take care of Nuris and the Unars. After saying a quick goodbye, we left Lingan to continue on our way as the journey continues.

 

 

**A/N: I have a college course called “culture and detective fiction,” so I’ve been reading nothing but detective murder mystery novels, so that’s why this is a little bit like that. Also because my friend recommended that I should do a Scooby-Doo like special. But it got a little dark. So yeah. I’ve got murder on the mind. (The most recent book I read had the victim died of strangulation.) But I hope you’ve enjoyed and PLEASE GIVE SUGGESTIONS FOR WHAT YOU WANT THE NEXT SPECIAL TO BE LIKE! Thanks for stickin with me!**

**XOXO**

**~Threbony**

 


	21. It's not Unusual...

Unedited

 

“The monster fell from the sky!” The Arusian king spoke, narrating the play the Arusians were performing the entrance hall of the Castle of Lions. “It was an epic battle, but Voltron was victorious!” The Arusians representing Voltron fell over. “No. I said, ‘ _Voltron_ was victorious!’” The Arusians got back up and hen knocked down the Arusians forming the Galra robeast. The rest of the Arusians cheered and held up their glasses of some kind of purple drink.

“Thank you, Your Majesty, for that wonderful production,” Allura said, though it was obvious that she didn’t think it was all that great. “It saddens me that we must leave tomorrow, but we must continue our battle with Zarkon and spread peace throughout the universe. Your Highness…” Allura turned to the Arusian King, “Please accept this gift,” Allura presented him with a blue and white device, small enough to fit comfortably in your hand. The Arusian King picked it up. “This will allow you to contact us anytime you need help. Arus will be the first planet in the Voltron Alliance.”

              “Hoorah!” The Arusian King shouted to the croud. The rest of the Arusians cheered and began to play some of their traditional music.

              “We ought to get something like that,” Hunk said as he approached Lance, Keith, and me.

              “Like what?” Lance asked.

              “Y’know, like, a cheer,” Hunk exclaimed. “Like, a team cheer that we do.”

              “Mm-hmm,” Lance hummed in agreement. “Yeah, okay. How about, uh…” Lance put a hand up to his chin in thought. “I say ‘Vol’ and you say ‘Tron.’ Vol!”

              “Uh… Voltron?” Keith answered, unsure of what Lance was asking.

 I put a hand over my mouth to stifle my giggles. It didn’t work. They stared at me questioningly. “Sorry, sorry, it’s just that-“ I was interrupted by my own giggles. “Lance, I-I’ll do it this time. Shoot.”

“Okay, Keith, watch closely. The cheer includes the instructions,” Lance explained before turning to me. “I say ‘Vol’ and you say ‘tron.’ Vol!”

“Tron!” I shouted back.

“Vol!” Lance.

“Tron!” Me. “God, I feel like a cheerleader. That reminds me, do any of you know this cheer?” I asked before shouting, “What team?!”

Keith looked at me strangely, “Voltron?”

“Eh, good enough I guess,” I told him, “but the correct answer was ‘WILDCATS!’” I got strange looks from Lance and Hunk while Keith seemed to be thinking hard on what I said. “Yknow, from ‘High School Musical?’” Lance and Hunk just looked at me strangely, while Keith still looked like he was thinking.

              “I’ve never heard of that,” Lance answered me.

              “Yeah, me neither,” Hunk said.

              “Actually, I think- I think I’ve seen that before. But _years_ ago,” Keith responded.

              “Ah, thank the lord somebody knew what I was talking about,” I said, giving a dramatic sigh in relief. “Lance, I expected better from you.”

              “Huh, wait, why me?!” Lance asked in a mock-offended tone.

              I laughed and turned away, going up to Shiro who was standing at the entrance of the Castle of Lions. “Hey, Shiro.”

              “Oh, (y/n), hi.”

              We stood there in silence for a few seconds, idly looking out at the rolling hills and grassy plains before I spoke up, “Shiro, I, I just…” I stumbled over my words and sighed, “Thank you.”

              “Shiro turned to look at me, and eyebrow raised, “What for?”

              “For listening to me rant yesterday and not judging me or shunning me for it. I don’t know what I’d do if you’d hate me, or if you told everyone else and then they hated me too,” I said and looked down at my feet.

              “Hey,” Shiro placed his hand on my shoulder and I looked up at him, seeing a gentle smile on his face, “I wouldn’t ever hate you, especially not for something like that. And I won’t tell anyone else about it either. If you ever need someone to confide in, I’m always here, okay?”

              Without thinking, I quickly pulled Shiro into a hug. “Thank you Shiro, thank you so much…” I mumbled out as I felt him wrap his arms around me too. It lasted for about two seconds before a pulled away and smiled at him. “I’m gonna head to the bridge for a bit. I need a break from all this social interaction.”

              Shiro gave me a nod before I turned around and started on my way towards the bridge. I passed by Coran who was approaching Shiro. I smiled at him before continuing my walk. It only took a minute before I found myself on the bridge. I sat down on the center platform, my feet planted on the unraised floor. Then I looked up and just stared at the sky. I could see so many different stars decorating the night sky, with so many different colors of reds, purples, blues, greens, yellows being seen throughout. Without the light pollution that’s present back home, I could see so much more of the night sky here.

              ‘Oh, that’s right. Home. When can I go home? My friends and family are probably worried about me by now. I mean, it’s been a few days. And I left (b/f/n) alone in the city. They probably think I was kidnapped by the mob or something. I hope everyone’s doing alright. Do you think I can go home soon? No, I can’t Voltron needs me… Or do they? I’m just the chest of Voltron, I do nothing but divert power. I’m practically useless. Voltron probably doesn’t even need the purple lion. They probably don’t need me.’ I let out a sigh, ‘What the hell am I even doing here? I don’t belong here. I never did, and I never will. I fucking dropped to the ground when the earth shook while the others focused on getting the Arusians to safety. I’m too focused on protecting myself instead of others at the first sign of danger! God, I’m useless. Maybe I should just leave and hope for the best.  But, I can’t do that to everyone? I can’t just up and disappear on everyone… Ah, who am I kidding. They’d probably be glad if I was gone. Less weight dragging them down; one less mouth to feed.’

              “(y/n)? What are you doing here?”

              I was startled from thoughts from hearing Lance speaking, who in turn took a seat next to me. “Oh, nothing much. Just, thinking about home I guess… What about you?”

              “Well, Hunk got me thinking about Earth again and I began to have doubts on when we’d get home, _if_ we get home that is.”

              “Mm,” I hummed out, not to mean anything in particular, just to let him know that I heard him and understood where he was coming from.

              And we just sat there. Looking out the large window, saying nothing. Just taking everything in.

              “Mind if I join you?” I heard Corn ask, as he came into the room. He came over and stood next to us.

              “How far away from Earth do you think we are, Coran?” Lance asked.

              “Let’s take a look,” Coran replied as he stepped up to the main console and placed his hand on it, and the windows tinted to black as a 3D map of the galaxy blew up around us. It was fascinating and beautiful.  “Earth is over here,” Coran pointed to a sphere of lights, “And were all..” He began swiping the map to the right as we watched the universe move in front of our eyes, “the way over…”

              “You ever notice how far the planets are from each other, Coran?” Lance asked.

              “Yes,” He answered, “Haven’t you been paying attention?” He was still scrolling.

              “Yeah, but I mean, like, they’re really, really far away,” Lance said as he walked up next to Coran. I got up from my seat as well and joined them. “Like, say, Earth. It’s so far, I can’t even see it. The… The blue oceans, the white clouds, green grass… I-I…I can’t see any of it.”

                            “I miss earth too. I miss my family, my friends; I miss the good food and playing around in the snow until my entire body went numb.” I sighed. “What a wonderful world.”

              “You miss Earth,” Coran looked at Lance, “I understand. I miss Altea.”

              “I know we’re supposed to be brave paladins and Defenders of the Universe or whatever, but, honestly, I just want to go home,” Lance said defeatedly as he first brought up his arms in a determined motion, before lowering them and looking at Coran.

              “If I could go home, I would,” Coran said.

              “I miss rain and splashing in puddles,” Lance said dejectedly.

              “I miss running through the sprinkler’s sprays of water on hot days,” I joined in.

              “Rain? Sprinklers?” Coran asked.

              “Sprinklers are machines that would spray water on grass to keep them from drying out and dying,” I answered.

              “Rain is water that falls from the sky,” Lance answered Coran.

              “Oh, we had that on Altea,” Coran responded as we watched shooting stars fly across the map. “Only it wasn’t water, more like rocks. Razor-sharp and boiling-hot. Oh, they could knock a hole right in your head.”

              “Sounds fun,” Lance said.

              “Yeah,” said Coran. “How about we head back to the others?”

              “Yeah, that sounds nice,” Lance responded.

              “I think I’m going to stay here a little while longer and look at the stars,” I replied. “Coran, is it alright if you keep this star map on? I’d like to look at it a while longer.”

              “Sure, just make sure you turn it off when you’re done by pressing this button,” he gestured to a button on the ride side of the control panel.

              “Sure can do,” I said as I looked back up at all the stars.

              I zoomed in on the milky way galaxy and just looked at it. ‘I wonder when we can go home.’ I heard their footsteps behind me as they walked out of the room.

              “Hey, Rover,” I heard Lance say. “Wait. Where’s Pidge?”

There was a high pitched beeping that grew faster and faster. I turned around to see what it was, but I didn’t see anything.

I heard Lance shout, “(y/n), Coran, Look out!” Then I saw white.

Suddenly, there was heat on my back and a burning feeling on every part of me as a deafening explosion met my ears. The large amount of pressure caused me to fall forward. I could feel nothing but pain.

_‘I really am useless, aren’t I?’_

And then, there was nothing.

_ _ _ _

 

 

**A/N** **Alright, Sorry for the shorter chapter, but I think from now on, this fic will be updated every Saturday or so. Get it? Got it. Good. Here we GOOOOOOOOOO**

**XOXO**

**~Threbony**


	22. ...To Be Loved By Anyone

Unedited

              Tw: some self-loathing, but then comfort.

<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmbRJMuObns>

____________

Two stars, suns, eyes-glowing in the dark beyond. They collide, then drift apart. Pressure. Too much pressure. It hurts. I can’t breathe. My head is being forced apart. It hurts. Stop it. STOP IT. MAKE IT STOP. I DON’T UNDERSTAND. WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS TO ME? LEAVE ME ALONE! I DON’T WANT TO DO THIS ANYMORE! STOP! PLEASE! MAKE! IT! STOP!

**.                                 .                               .**

Nothing, nowhere, just dark again. Then it’s light. Then there’s color. Then there’s purple light around me, and a purple mass in front of me. Who is that? I see an arm and a replacement for an arm. It’s Sendak’s mechanical arm. It’s Sendak a few paces in front of me. Then there’s a purple and white scythe in his shoulder that quickly dematerializes into a bayard and clatters on the ground. I see red. The red of his one bionic eye. Then it’s nothing once more.

**.                                 .                              .**

              It’s cold. But not a dark cold. A refreshing cold. Opening my eyes, I was met with the same blue as before. I was in one of those healing pods. This time, as the lid vanished, I made sure not to fall flat on my face. I was successful! I landed on my hands and knees instead and that absolutely killed my knees; it felt like someone broke them with a wrench. ~~Specifically, this wrench!~~ With a small groan, I moved my legs out from underneath me and _oh so gracefully_ plopped myself down on my butt to sit cross-legged. Looking around, I noticed nobody else in the room. With a heave-ho, I lifted myself up, wobbling a little bit. It was at this point I was wearing a white, skin-tight body suit, which meant somebody changed me out of my paladin armor and if it was anybody besides Allura, I’ll kill them.

              ‘Wonder where everyone is. Eh, I’ll just go change into my actual clothes, I guess,’ I thought with a shrug and headed off to my room.

              This time, I didn’t get lost getting to my room…okay, maybe I took one wrong turn, but it was only one, I swear! After entering and locking the door behind me, I stripped myself of the body suit and went to put on my regular clothes. As I was slipping my shirt on, I noticed it held a slight floral aroma to it. Did somebody wash my clothes for me? Y’know what, I’m not gonna think about it. After finishing putting on normal people clothes, I folded up the body suit and sat on bed, just staring at it. Memories of what happened before filled my mind. My hands dug into the fabric, but I didn’t notice.

              “What a sad excuse for a paladin you are, (y/n)…”

              With a heavy sigh, I stood up to walk back to the healing pod room. If the paladins are looking for me, they’re gonna check there first, so I might as well go back. Stuffing my hands in my pockets, I ambled back over to the room I had woken up in. Walking past the automatic doors, I was met with the sight of Lance and Hunk freaking out, the Alteans and the other paladins just looking at them funny.

              “Eyo, what’s with all the screaming? Somebody find a dead body?” I asked from the doorway.

              “(y/n)’s gone!” Hunk screamed out.

              “Yup. Long gone. Outta here. Never to be seen again. (y/n)’s soul has left (y/n)’s body and is on a one-way trip to the afterlife, or to perhaps fulfil their long-lost dream of becoming a lap cat.” I deadpanned, no hint of emotion in my voice whatsoever.

              “Wait- (y/n)!” Hunk finally realized that I was literally right in front of him. He than ran up to me and then squeezed the life out of me in a hug, easily lifting me off of the ground.

              “Hnng, can’t… breathe….” I wheezed out; my face felt like it was turning blue.

              “Sorry,” Hunk said sheepishly before putting me down. I greedily took in a lungful of air as soon as I was released.

              “It’s okay. How’s everybody else doin’?”

              “We’re all good, and Lance is doing better now too, but how are you feeling?” Shiro asked. As soon as he mentioned that, I felt a bubble of guilt rise in my chest.

              “Right as rain,” I replied with a forced smile. “Just tired though. So, I’m gonna go back to my room and take a nap, m’kay?” I didn’t wait for a reply before immediately turning around and leaving, heading back for my room. ‘Dammit (y/n), you can’t even be around them long enough without starting to tear up from guilt,’ I thought to myself before rubbing some of the tears out of my eyes.

The closer I got to my room, the more I began to run. I ran straight through the automatic door and launched myself onto my bed, cocooning myself up in my blankets, hugging my pillow close to my chest. I could feel tears rolling down my face and sobs bubbling up my throat. I didn’t bother to try and stop it; I only hoped that the pillow I was now burrowing my face into would be enough to muffle my ugly, dirty sobs.

“God-dammit, why am I so _fucking_ useless!” I sobbed out into my pillow. Unneeded. Unworthy. Pathetic. “Just so… pathetic,” words just seemed to fill my mind. I just lay there. Curled up in a blanket cocoon. Letting everything out in one big rush. Reaching my hand out, but not bothering to look, I tried to find my phone to hopefully look at some memes to make myself feel better. Then I remembered. I didn’t have my phone. It was in my bag. Dead. Dejectedly, I pulled my arm back in my cocoon and just cried.

“Aih!” I screamed when I felt a hand on my shoulder. Quckly rolling over to see who it was, I overestimated the size of my bed and fell onto the floor on my back. Wincing first, I then opened my eyes to see Keith standing above me, his arm out a bit. I flipped around to face my bed and curled up again, refusing to let him see my tears, even though I’m pretty sure it was too late for that. I heard some shuffling and then the hand on my arm again. It’s quiet for a while, not counting my sniffles and hiccups.

“What’s wrong?” I heard Keith mumble out.

“Nothing. I’m fine,” I muttered, but I’m sure he doesn’t believe me for one second.

“No, you’re not,” Keith retorted, a bit angrily too. “I know a fake smile when I see one; plus you’ve been crying. So don’t try to deny it.”

“It’s because I’m fucking useless, okay!?” I shouted, not bothering to turn around. “I’m just so damn pitiful and pathetic and a sorry excuse for a paladin- for a friend! I let everyone else get hurt and fight for me while I did absolutely nothing and got myself knocked out! I became a liability that everyone else had to worry about- a burden on everyone’s shoulders. Why would anybody need someone like me? Hell, how could anybody even want someone like me around?! All I do is mess up.”

With a sigh, Keith spoke again, “You know that’s not true.”

“Oh, yeah? What makes you say that?”

“I-well- ugh, listen. I’m not… _good_ at these kinds of things; I don’t know what to do in these situations. So, just trust me on this, okay?... But, I guess I could… give you a hug?”

I didn’t respond. I just nodded my head. I felt him awkwardly wrap and arm around me, seeing as he couldn’t get his other arm around me without lifting me up off the ground. His arm was stiff and his hand barely brushed against me.

“It-It’s not unusual to be loved by anyone, (y/n). And everyone’s been starting to consider this team a second family, and you’re no exception.”

Wait a minute. Hold on. Hold the phone. Yeah, Keith being all reassuring ‘n stuff is out of character, but that’s besides the point. I slowly sat up, causing Keith to stop “hugging” me. Turning around to face him, I didn’t even notice that my tears had stopped due to overwhelming disbelief of the situation.

“Did you just… Oh my lord you did. You made a Tom Jones reference. Holy shit, I can’t believe it,” I stared at Keith astounded.

“Is that _all_ you got out of that- wait, you know Tom Jones?”

“Hell yeah I do, my dude. My cousin and her roommates were obsessed with Tom Jones. Her roommates hid a total of twenty-four Tom Jones’ faces around their dorm room, but only told her there were twenty three because they knew she would’ve torn up the entire dorm to find that last face. They only told her there was a twenty-fourth face at the end of the year when they had to pack up and move back home.” I then brought my hand up to my mouth and leaned in close. I whispered, “it was underneath the carpet.” I couldn’t keep my giggles in anymore and sat back, laughing.

Keith just stared at me funny the entire time.

“Oh, oh, oh, and they found a cardboard cutout of Justin Beiber in their ceiling- like, they removed one of the ceiling panels to try and hide a Tom Jones’ face up there, but found that sitting there instead,” at this point I was full on laughing because of how weirded-out Keith’s face was becoming.

I didn’t even realize that I had completely forgot about what had happened just minutes earlier.

 

 

**A/N: I have a head canon that since Keith lives out in this old, run-down shack in the middle of nowhere, he only owns old stuff that was passed down through the generations, as he lives in a future version of our Earth. Hence why he recognized High School Musical and knows who Tom Jones is. Also, the stories at the end about my cousin are actually true stories, believe it or not. My cousin has some crazy roommates. And sorry if Keith seemed a little OOC, he’s hard for me to write for, especially in Keith-reader bonding moments. (P.S. if you didn’t catch the chapter titles, the previous one was “It’s not unusual” and this one was “to be loved by anyone.” That’s right. I’ve been planning out this Tom Jones reference. But I hoped you’ve enjoyed, and sorry it’s a little short, I just wanted to get it out. Anyway, thanks for stickin with me, and I hope you’ve enjoyed!**

**XOXO**

**~Threbony**

 

 


	23. Under a Different Sky

Unedited

 

              After spending some time laughing with Keith (it was really more of me cracking myself up and Keith looking at me like I was crazy), we headed down to the bridge/main control area/ whatever it was called. During our walk, Keith filled me in on everything that had happened since I passed out. Apparently, I had thrown my scythe at Sendak and hit his back. I don’t remember doing that though. I was also told that he was being kept frozen in a cryo-pod in the castle. We were also heading to “Balmera” to help some people out that Hunk had met when getting a replacement crystal, and the castle itself was a spaceship. Oh, and Pidge revealed that she was a girl. Thank goodness; I was struggling with trying not to mis-gender her. Upon arriving at the bridge, I saw Allura at what I assumed to be the helm, Coran up near the front, and the rest of the Paladins were over to the left.

              “Yo, didja miss me?” I called out as I approached them.

              “(y/n), I’m glad to see you’re doing well,” Shiro smiled at me.

              “Me too,” I smiled back.

              “Oh, (y/n), I meant to tell you that I’m actually a-“

              “A girl?” I cut Pidge off. “I know. Keith caught me up on everything I missed.” I nodded my head in Keith’s direction.

              “But anyway, what’s goin’ on right now?”

              “Well, we’re currently on our way to the Balmera to free the Balmerans from the Galra,” Pidge said as I went and took a seat on the steps to her left.

              “So, when we get there, what do you think?” Hunk asked, pacing behind Pidge and me. “Do we just roll up and start blasting? Or do we land and have some kind of public address system, like, ‘Attention, Galras, this is Voltron. Turn yourselves in?’” Hunk puffed up his chest, hands on his hips before deflating and slouching in defeat. No. Blasting, right?”

              “Hunk, calm down,” Keith started doing the hands-patting-air-calm-down-motion before leaning back against the wall and crossing his arms. “And, yes, blasting.”

              “It’s our first big rescue mission. He’s excited,” Shiro explained for Hunk.

              “Excited to see his new girlfriend,” Pidge teased, leaning back so her head was upside-down when she looked at Hunk.

              “Oooooh, I didn’t hear about this,” I perked up and turned around, staring straight at Hunk. “Who is this ‘new girlfriend,’ hmm?” I wiggled my eyebrows at him, interested.

              “Ah- She’s not my girlfriend!” Hunk retaliated, looking away from us. “She’s just a rock that I met and I admire very much.” Before Hunk could say anything more, the alarm began to sound.

              “What is it?” Shiro asked Coran, quickly spinning around to face him. “Are we being attacked?”

              “No, it seems to be a distress beacon,” Coran replied, still looking at his console.

              “It’s coming from a nearby moon,” Allura spoke this time. “Apparently, a ship has lost power.”

              “I wonder who it is,” Pidge stated, now standing.

              “Whoever it is will have to wait,” Hunk said from behind me, a stern and determined tone to his voice. “Shay has first priority. We can check back on them when we’re done.”

              “The Paladin Code states that we must help all those in need,” Allura said, now looking at Hunk.

              “Hunk, we need to go help them,” I said, now standing and facing Hunk. “If they’ve been stranded without power for a while, they may not have very much time left. Think about it; no power means no refrigeration, no heating, no cooling. If they’re stuck in an extreme environment or have no fresh food left, then we’re their only hope.”

              “Wow! This is so cool,” Lance exclaimed, now also standing. “It’s like we’re space cops on space patrol.

              “I think you meant to say, ‘Space Power Rangers,’” I muttered under my breath.        

              “Coran, do we have a siren we can turn on?”

              “Uh, no, but we could record you making a siren noise and broadcast that to them,” Coran told Lance who now looked ecstatic.

              “Perfect!” Lance began to make a siren noise before Shiro covered his mouth.

              “No, not doing that.”

**.                                            .                                        .**

              As we approached the moon, Allura began to speak. “Attention, damaged craft, this is Princess Allura. We are coming to Assist you.” Landing the ship, she then turned to Coran. “Stay aboard and try to get as many of our systems clear of that Galra crystal energy as you can. We’ll see who hailed us.”

              “Yes, Princess,” Coran replied and went back to his console.

              The rest of us put on our paladin armor and joined Allura in a landing pod that took us down to the surface. Upon exiting the pod, we were met with some purple dude with four fingers on each hand, a girl with yellow skin and the same color hair(?), and a little robot next to a downed ship.

              “You don’t know how glad we are to see some friendly faces,” the purple dude said, crossing his arms. “Most folks don’t want to get tangled up with anyone who’s on the run from the Galra.”

              “Wait, would you say we’re on the run from the Galra if we’re actively picking fights for them? Or does that only apply the minute we run away?” I asked Pidge, keeping my voice down as we approached the two aliens and robot.

              “Let’s just leave it at ‘we’re actively opposing the Galra’ for now,” she replied.

              “So, you guys are fightin’ the Galra?” Keith asked.

              “Well, I don’t think Zarkon is exactly quaking in his boots at the three of us, but we do what we can. I’m Rolo. This is Nyma, and our cyber-unit, Beezer,” he gestured to the alien lady and robot behind him.

              “Hi,” Nyma smiled at us while Beezer beeped at us and raised its little cat ears.

              “Cool robot! Pidge exclaimed, immediately checking out Beezer while Lance went straight to Nyma.

              “Hi! Name’s Lance,” he tried to be charming, taking her hand in his.

              “Was your ship damaged in a fight?” Shiro asked Rolo.

              I didn’t hear much else of the conversation as I went and crouched in front of Beezer, staring at it. ‘I’ve always wanted to see if I could win in a staring contest against a robot.’ “Hmmmmmmm,” I hummed out, staring at Beezer. No movement. “Hnnnnnnnn,” I could feel my eyes beginning to sting. “C’mon… just… a little… longer…” Nothing. And then I blinked. “Aww, dammit! I was so close to!”

              “(y/n), Language!” I heard Shiro shout from behind me.

              “Sorry,” I apologized sheepishly.

              “What were you trying to do?” Pidge asked me.

              “I was having a staring contest with Beezer. I hate to admit it, but I lost, fair and square. Beezer, you’re truly a worthy opponent.”

              “You do know you’d never win a staring contest against a robot, right?”

              “I can dream, Pidge!”

              “Let me know if you ever win, okay,” Pidge said, a hint of amusement prevalent in her voice.

              During my staring contest, Rolo had gone up to his ship and opened it up. “Pretty much our whole flaxum assembly is shot. I don’t know what kind of extra parts you carry in this rig of yours. I’ve never seen anything quite like it.”

              “I’m sure we can get you back up and running,” Allura reassured him. “Give Hunk a list of what you need. Coran can show you where to find it.” While Allura was speaking, Lance was flexing and and then winked at Nyma, who giggled in response. Shiro slugged him in the back. I let out a wheeze of laughter, my efforts of keeping my laughter in failing for a split second.

              “Okay,” Hunk said, nothing else to add.

              “We’ll go with you,” Rolo offered. “Don’t want you to have to carry all that yourself. Come on guys,” He started walking towards the ship but was stopped by Hunk.

              “Uh, I don’t think so,” Hunk stared him straight in the eyes. “You can just wait out here.”

              “Hunk, don’t be rude,” Allura scolded.

              “Yeah, mind your manners,” Lance backed Allura up. “There are ladies present. Hey,” he clicked his tongue and  pointed finger guns as Nyma. Shiro sighed in exhasperation.

              “Oh, I’m sorry, but does anyone remember the last time we let our defenses down?” Hunk brought up the attack by Sendak. “Someone kind of set off a bomb. Remember, Lance? You and (y/n) were almost killed.”

              “Oh, yeah,” Lance trailed off, his argument (if you can even call it that) obviously defeated.

              “Hunk’s right,” Shiro stepped forward. “Sorry, but we have to be cautious.

              “Hey, I don’t take it personal,” Rolo said, being understanding. “That’s how it is out here.” He took a slip of receipt-like paper from Beezer. “You’ve got to look out for your own. You’re doing a good job, big man.” He handed the receipt to Hunk.

              “Yeah. Thanks,” Hunk thanked him unenthusiastically before heading back onto the ship.

              “Sorry about that,” I said going up to Rolo. “We were actually on our way to go and rescue some good friends he made before we picked up your distress signal. He just wants to go help them as soon as possible.”

              “Hey, like I said, it’s perfectly OK. Don’t worry about,” Rolo said to me.

              With a smile I turned around and walked over to Shrio. “Yo, Shiro. Imma go explore a little, m’kay?”

              “Alright, just don’t go too far, okay?” He said, looking at me a little concerned.

              “Yessiree,” I said, giving him a little salute before walking off on my own. As soon as I had walked far enough where I couldn’t hear them anymore, I let out a sigh of relief. “Hah, sweet silence.” And I kept walking. The sun- or at least this moon’s equivalent to a sun- was setting. Taking a seat on the ground, I laid back and just looked. I watched the stars but I didn’t see them. I didn’t truly see them at first. I only saw them when I realized that I was looking for something. I was looking for the constellations I knew so well, the planets that I could just barely see from my own. I couldn’t find them; I couldn’t see them.

              “I’m really not home anymore, am I?” This moon is not my moon. I don’t recognize the stars. I can’t see the constellations. There’s no Big or Little Dipper; there’s no Orion. There’s no Venus or Mars. This night sky that I see is alien. The one I know so well, yet not well at all is gone. The world I love is gone. My world is gone. My earth is gone. My home is gone.

              My eyes were stinging again. Bringing my hands up to rub my eyes, I was met with wetness. Huh, guess I really am a cry baby. How many times are you going to cry today, (y/n)?

              My thoughts were interrupted by the sight of the Blue Lion flying over me. “Now where could you be going, kitty?” I wondered aloud. With a grunt, I lifted myself off the ground and decided to follow it.

 

 

 

**A/N: Hey hey hey heyyyyyy, I don’t really have much to day but finals are in two weeks, so don’t expect any updates until after December 13 th. I realllllyyyy need to focus on my studies right now because I’d rather not fail my first semester at college. Anyway, thanks for stickin’ with me, and I hope you’ve enjoyed!**

**XOXO**

**~Threbony**


	24. Cover Contest?!

Hey so, I’m making a cover art contest that’ll end on January 1st 2019. There will be prizes! This is mainly for my Quotev and Wattpad since I can’t put a cover image on this on AO3, but I still want you guys to be able to participate! I’ll still post the covers the winners made here if I can figure it out.

1st place: 2500+ word chapter of the reader with the character of our choice in a scenario of either their choosing.

2nd place: 2000+ word chapter of the reader with the character of their choice in a scenario of their choosing.

3rd place: 1500+ word chapter of the reader with the character of their choosing in a scenario of their choosing.

 

Now, as an important side note, I won’t write for characters I’m uncomfortable with writing for( I.e. anything romantic with Zarkon, Hagar, or Coran because he is my space uncle) or any scenarios I’m uncomfortable with (i.e. major character death, angst with no fluffy ending, anything nsfw). But I hope you’ll enjoy this contest! To contact me, either DM me or you can use my discord which I posted in a previous chapter. Have fun!

 

XOXO

~Threbony

 


	25. My Phone is My Life (+Q&A)

Unedited

             

 

              First things first, this story has met a huge mile mark that I’ve never expected it to hit, so I’m having a Q&A! (and maybe a Christmas special but shhhh)! So just comment or DM me a question, and if you wanna remain anonymous, just lemme know, okay? Or you can send me a message through my discord if you wanna do that. Anyway, onto the story!

 

              There wasn’t much to do as I went in the general direction that the blue lion went, so to spice up my life a little, I played a little game of hopscotch with myself. Well, it wasn’t exactly hopscotch; I just changed the way I walked: skipping, hopping on one leg than the other, doing lunges, making my steps unnecessarily wide, etc. Taking off my helmet, I shook my hair out; that helmet was always a little uncomfortable. Balancing the helmet between my arm and hip, I continued making my way down but normally this time. Quickly growing bored again, I began to toss and spin my helmet up in the air repeatedly. I didn’t even notice until I dropped it that I had been humming out of habit. Picking the helmet back up, I saw a blue, white, and black worm wriggling in the distance.

              “Guys?” I heard Lance’s voice come from both my helmet and the worm. Shit, that worm was Lance! “Hello? Little help?”

              “Lance?” Shiro’s voice came through my helmet next. Clumsily putting my helmet back on, I fixed it into place and listened to what they were saying while making my way over to Lance. “Lance! Are you all right? What’s going on?”

              “Well, I’m kind of chained to a…a tree,” Lance admitted.

              “I knew it!” Hunk exclaimed.

              “Is that why you’ve been squirming on the ground like a worm?” I asked.

              “Wait what?” Lance sounded very confused.

              “I’m right by you. I can see you a little ways in front of me.”

              “Well can you come and help me please? I think Nyma and Rolo just stole the Blue Lion.”

              “I knew it!” Hunk shouted again.

              “Where are they?” Shiro asked.

              “Uh, space?” Lance sounded unsure.

              “I’ll get Lance-- can you guys take care of the rest?” I asked.

              “Sounds like a plan. Let’s go!” Shiro responded.

              “Uh, I never trusted those guys, right from the beginning!” Hunk began to ramble. “At first, it was a feeling in my gut, but when I was replacing that pipe—” I took off my helmet at that point, being only a few meters away from Lance (and I could tell Hunk was about to go on a long-ass rant that I wasn’t about to be a part of).

              “Heya Lance, what brings you ta these here parts?” I asked, a smug look on my face. He was not amused. “Were you side-tracked by somebody _flauntin’ dat boo-ty?”_ I sung out the last three words in a teasing tone.

              “OK, OK, I get it, just—can you please help me out of these?” He asked, shaking his wrists to emphasize the fact that he wanted them free of their bindings. _~~Kinky~~_.

              “Don’t worry, I’ll have you out soon.” I took out my bayard and held it above my head as it turned into the familiar form of a scythe.  Without further ado, I swung it down towards the tree, slicing through both the yellow wire and part of the tree Lance was chained to. Putting my bayard back to the magical holster on my thigh or whatever you wanna call it (I don’t know how this thing works), I offered my hand to Lance who accepted. Pulling him back up to his fight, I said, “Let’s get on our way then.” Turning around, I took a few steps before stopping. I had no idea which way was back to the castle. Well fuck. “Hey, uh, Lance?” I spun back around to look at Lance who had already put his helmet back on. “Do you know which way we have to go to get back?”

              “No?” Lance looked at me scared.

              “Well…” I plopped down on the ground, situating myself into a comfortable seated position. “…we’re fucked. At least until they’re done getting your lion back, we are.”

              “So, what do we do now?”

              “…Talk?” I dragged out the ‘a.’

              “Okay, what you wanna talk about?” Lance took a seat across from me.

              “Hmm… I don’t know,” I tapped a finger against my lips as I stared at the ground in thought. “I was never really that good at this… ‘talking’ thing, if that wasn’t obvious. I usually just stand to the side and listen while everybody else talks… Oh! I just remembered!” I quickly looked back up at Lance. “Did you guys happen to find a bag on me when I first arrived? I completely forgot about it until earlier today. I’m pretty sure it has my phone in it and I _need_ my baby to survive all this stress!” ‘My entire collection of memes is stored on my precious baby; I need those memes!’

              “Your ‘baby?’”

              “I am married to and in love with only two things in life: my phone and my bed. Nobody comes between the love we have for each other!”

              “Well, I can’t argue with that.”

              “But besides that, I’m pretty sure I still have some snacks left over in my bag and I’ve been dying for something sweet.” Lance perked up at that.

              “Well, if I just so happen to find your bag, could I maybe have some of those snacks?”

              “Why not? As long as you don’t eat all of it, I’d be happy to share. Food tastes better with friends.” We sat there in silence for a few seconds before I stuck both hands in front of me, the index finger of each one pointing at Lance. “You wanna play chopsticks?”

              “Oh, you’re on!” He scooched closer to me and made the first move.

              We played three rounds of it (two of which I won) before Keith’s voice interrupted us in the middle of our fourth round, “Hey, Lance, I got your lion back.”

              “Thank you, Keith,” Lance said, actually sounding pretty grateful. “Now, can you come and pick me and (y/n) up? We’re kind of lost.”

              “What’s that? I, uh… Y-you’re cutting out. I can’t… I can’t hear you,” Keith started joking, I couldn’t hold back my laughter.

              “Oh, come on!” Lance shouted, exasperated at Keith. “I thought we bonded! Keith? Buddy? My man?” Lance’s pleads didn’t help stop my fit of hysterics.

Despite poking fun at Lance, Keith came down in the red lion to pick us up and bring us back to the castle ship.

“Since your ship doesn’t really work now, you’ll have to wait here for a rescue,” Keith told Nyma and Rolo who were sitting on some of their cargo in front of us. The paladins had brought back their ship (that they had damaged) and landed it back where they started.

“Thanks for sparing our lives,” Rolo said quietly.

“Now that these guys are dealt with, let’s get to the Balmera and save Shay and her family,” Hunk said in a stern tone, unwilling to take no for an answer.

              “You many not believe this, but I hope you do stop Zarkon,” Rolo spoke up again. “It’s a lifetime of fighting the Galra that led me to where I am today.”

              “Don’t worry Mr. Chocolate Caramel Gumdrop, we will. I’ll make sure of it,” I said to him before the rest of us walked off.

              “’Mr. Chocolate Caramel Gumdrop?’” Lance questioned my choice of words, giving me a look that said I was crazy.

              “What? His name is Rolo and a Rolo is a gumdrop-shaped, caramel-filled chocolate candy. When I first learned his name, that was _all_ I could think about.” I defended my case.

              “O-K then. Whatever you say.”

**.                            .                         .**

              After the Castelship got back en route to the Balmera, I was about to retire for the night when I remembered “My phone!” I sprinted down to the bridge since that was the only place that I was sure anyone would be at. Sliding to a screeching halt (and almost falling over in the process) I spotted Allura at the helm with Coran by her side. “Allura! Coran! When – when you guys first… found me…” I rasped out, panting in between words trying to catch my breath, “do you remember…. who took me… out of my lion?”

              “If I remember correctly, I think it was Shiro,” Allura responded, a concerned look on her face.

              “K, thanks, bye!” I ran back down to the hallway I was in before where all of our rooms were at and knocked on the one I thought was Shiro’s. I knocked on the door a couple times before placing my hands on my head, trying to catch my breath. I was proven to be mistaken when Keith answered the door instead. “Ah, fuck. Keith, my dude, my bro, mi amigo, which room is Shiro’s?” I was still just as out of breath as before, perhaps even more so.

              “It’s that one,” he pointed to the door a little way down the hall.

              “Thanks, that was it, bye,” I then walked over to Shiro’s door and knocked on it like I did with Keith’s. I was never happier to see Shiro’s face. “Shiro, Hun, when you guys first found me, was my bag there too?”

              “Yeah, Pidge has been holding onto it for you,” Shiro responded, his head tilted to the side a little bit in confusion.

              “Ah, perfect, that’s great, fantastic even,” I gave him a smile. “Where’s Pidge?”

              He pointed to another door along the hallway “She’s in her room.”

              “Thank you~” I then ran to Pidge’s door and knocked once more. “Pidge! Open up!”

              “(y/n)? What’re you doing here?” she asked as she opened the door.

              “No time to explain! D you have my bag?” I shouted. Well, I guess I did just explain my reason for being there, but that’s besides the point.

              “Yeah, I’ve been holding on to it since I don’t trust _some people_ to not snoop through other people’s things,” she glared at something down the hall but refocused her attention on me before I could see what. “But it’s right over here,” she said as she led me into her room.

              Spotting my bag in the far corner of her room, I quickly ran up to it and slid on my knees the last few feet. Scooping it up into my arms, I practically ripped it open and dug my phone out of it. “Oh, my dear sweet child, I promise to never leave you again!” I tried turning my phone on, but nothing happened. After two more attempts, I was met with the old familiar screen that meant ‘I’m dead. CHARGE ME!’ With a sigh, I dug through my bag again, pulling out a charger for my phone. “Hey Pidge, do you have anywhere that I could plug my phone in?” I asked, turning around and presenting my phone and charger to her, still sitting on the floor.

              Immediately her eyes widened, and her jaw dropped. Her entire face lit up with the same fascination from when she saw Beezer.

              “Um, Pidge?” I called out to her. She didn’t respond. She just kept staring at my phone. “You alright?”

              “Is that—” she cut herself off in disbelief. “Is that a (phone model)*?”

 

 

 

 

*The kind of phone and model that you currently own (or want to own) Like an iphone8 or something.

 

**A/n: uwu what’s this? What could possibly be happening? Anyways, Q &A TIME!!!!!! So yeah I’m hosting a Q&A since this fic has hit quite the large mile mark. Just comment/DM me a question and if you want to remain anonymous when I answer in a later chapter, just say so either before or after your question!!! Anyways, Finals are over so I can work on this more often (and expect a Christmas special soon. I’d do a Hannukah one except it’s already over with and I don’t feel like I know enough about Hannukah to not make any major mistakes). Thanks for stickin with me, and I hope you’ve enjoyed!**

**XOXO**

**~Threbony**


	26. Christmas Special 2018

Unedited

 

              Groaning, I begrudgingly lifted myself up, not ready to accept the fact that I had to wake up. ‘I just wanted a little more sleep, what’s wrong with that, brain?’ I patted around my bed to find my phone, which decided to hide under the covers to my left. Raising it up near my face, I checked what time it would’ve been back home. ‘5:42 a.m., huh? My internal clock must be real fucked up by now,’ I thought to myself, sending a bored glance down to the date. ‘December 24th… December 24th. DECEMBER 24TH, HOLY SHIT IT’S CHRISTMAS TOMORROW!’

              It was Christmas Eve and I wasn’t going to be caught not getting ready for it! I flung my covers off of me and got ready how I normally did, tripping over my own feet multiple times because of the rush I was in. I clumsily threw on my paladin armor, fixing it on the way down to my lion’s hangar. I took the long way around because I didn’t want to risk running into anybody on the bridge. Afterall, this was going to be my own Christmas surprise.

‘Wait, no, bad idea. They’ll look for me if I don’t tell them that I’m leaving.’

              Spinning around, I jogged back the way I came and headed for the bridge. Upon arriving, I was met with the sight of both Coran and Allura already at the helm.

              “Hey Coran, hey Allura, I’m heading out to do some errands, OK? Bye!” I didn’t give them time to respond as I went down the elevator that led me on that long, convoluted ride to the hangar. I quickly hopped into Rossa and sped off with her.

              “Okay, first thing on the Christmas check list is to get a Christmas Tree. Hey Rossa, you think you can get us to the nearest plant-inhabited planet?” I heard a low, warm rumble come from her as a response. “I’m gonna take that as a ‘yes.’ Well then, let’s go! Allons-y!”

              It didn’t take long before Rossa landed us both on a planet that was covered in snow. I didn’t realize how much I had missed the cold powder until I lowered the ramp of my lion and saw it coming down in gentle flurries. I didn’t even think twice before I ran down and jumped, belly flopping into the snow with my limbs spread like a starfish. I was extremely grateful when it turned out there was enough snow to cushion my jump, not to mention that it wasn’t snow-covered ice. Lifting myself up a couple seconds later, I brushed the snow off my armor and began to trudge through it in search of a Christmas tree. The snow came up to my mid-calf, so I had to do high-knees to travel more efficiently. Thank god the others weren’t here because I could tell I looked ridiculous.

              ‘There’s nothing but normal trees; what were they called? Deciduous? I need a conifer- a good ol’ pine tree. Or a space pine tree, I guess.’

               The trees around me were bare of any leaves, their bark ranging in colors from a deep blue to a bright red. And then I saw it. It was similar to a pine tree, but its bark was a dark blue, and its needles were periwinkle. Brushing my hand over the needles, they didn’t seem to be as prickly as the ones back on earth, but then again, I was still wearing my suit. Equipping my bayard, I quickly sliced through the trunk of the tree before stepping to the right a little bit as if began to fall over.

              “Timber!” I called out to absolutely nobody as the tree crashed into the snowy ground, making a ‘thwhump’ sound. “Now then,” I said as I put my bayard away and brushed the imaginary dust off my hands. “Let’s get this bad boy back to the castle.” I approached the tree and wrapped my arms around it, hoisting it up. It didn’t budge. “Well… I didn’t think this through, did I? Umm… Hey Rossa! If you can hear me, can you get over here please?!” I waited for only about a minute before Rossa landed a few feet away from me. “Thank you, Rossa. Now to get this tree on board… Hey Rossa, lower the ramp for me, will ya?” With a low rumble, she lowered the ramp as I contemplated on how to get the tree on board.

              Since I wasn’t able to lift it with my bare hands, I thought that maybe—just maybe—if I could somehow get an end up onto my shoulder, I could drag it up into the cargo hold in Rossa. At the trunk of the tree, between the part where I had cut it and where the branches began, I began to dig a ditch in the snow until I had a hole large enough for me to crouch in. After making it large enough, I shimmied into it and tried to shift the tree over onto my shoulder. Luckily, the tree wasn’t too wide, maybe being about 5”/13 cm in diameter at the greatest. Hoisting myself and the tree up with some difficulty, I began the strenuous task of lugging it back onto Rossa.

              “C’mon, (y/n), we can do this. Just gotta get from here to there.” I trudged over to Rossa, slowly making my way over to here inch by inch until finally, at long last, I had gotten the entirety of the tree onto the ramp. “Okay Rossa, you can close up now.” As soon as the ramp had risen far enough so that the tree wouldn’t slide out, I dropped it down and began to rub my aching shoulder. “Ah, damn, that tree is a _bitch_ to carry. Making my way back to the pilot’s cabin, I plopped down with a sigh of relief. “Alright Rossa, let’s head back.” I grabbed onto the handles and let her guide me back to the Castleship.

**.                        .                         .**

              “Well, fuck me sideways.” I just realized that I can’t get the tree from my lion to where it’s supposed to go. Fuck, I don’t even know where I can put this tree! “Maybe I should get some help for this…” Making my way back up to the bridge, I was set on getting Allura and Coran’s help with setting up for Christmas since I wanted to surprise the other paladins. When I got to the bridge however, Allura and Coran weren’t alone; the other paladins were all in respective seats. “Oh, hey everybody, how’s it hangin’? How you doin? Good, great! Allura, Coran, can I talk to you guys for a second, please and thank you!” Allura and Coran gave each other confused looks while the rest of the paladins looked at me strangely and concerned. “Don’t worry, it’s nothing serious,” I said, waving off their looks before gesturing to Coran and Allura to meet me out in the hallway.

              Once the three of us were alone, Allura spoke, “What’s the matter, (y/n)? Why do you need us?”

              “Well, you see, tomorrow on Earth there’s this huge holiday celebration called Christmas and I want to surprise the others by setting up a Christmas party, but I can’t do it alone. Basically, what I’m trying to ask is: will you two help me?” I pleaded to the two of them.

              “That sounds like a wonderful idea!” Allura looked absolutely delighted, and Coran had excitement bouncing in his eyes. “Please, tell me more about this ‘Kris-miss’ you celebrate.”

              “Okay, well, I’ll give you the short version of it. So, originally it was completely tied to religion, and it still is with some families, but it’s also turned into just a general holiday that anyone can celebrate regardless of religion. You set aside the entire day of Christmas to spend with your loved ones, whether they be friends, family, or both. You decorate your house with lights, wreaths, mistletoe, bells, and other festive things, including a large Christmas tree. The tree is the staple decoration of Christmas where you decorate it with lights, ornaments, tinsel, and whatever you want really. And then there’s the presents.” As I was speaking, I started heading down to the hangar with my lion in it, Allura and Coran following me. I continued to explain more to them about Christmas, such as the whole deal with Santa Claus, Christmas music, and what I typically did during the holiday season. “But anyway, first things first. I got a Christmas tree-- or the space equivalent of one, at least. Is there anywhere I can put it out without the paladins really finding out? And could I get some help getting it there because its damn fucking heavy.”

              “Well, there is the grand ballroom, if you want to use that,” Coran suggested. “I’ll even help you get it there! Afterall, I know this castle like the back of my hand, so it’ll be hard for the paladins to track us down with me leading you,” Coran said proudly, fiddling with his mustache.

              “That’s perfect!” I exclaimed, get more excited by the minute. “Okay, Allura, can you go keep the paladins distracted while Coran and I take the tree down to the ballroom? Then we can decorate the whole place!”

              “Alright, I’ll meet up with you two later then. I want to partake in decorating too, so don’t finish without me,” Allura told us before heading back up to the bridge.

              “Well, then Coran, let’s get this tree up to the ballroom,” I said before leading him up into Rossa’s cargo hold.

              With a heave-ho, Coran and I managed to lift the tree up onto our shoulders and then headed down to the ballroom, Coran leading the way. By the time we got the ballroom about ten minutes later, I was fatigued and out of breath, letting the tree fall right off my shoulder.

              “Okay… now… we need to stand…stand it up… you got anything for that Coran?” I wheezed out.

              “Hmm…” Coran put his hand up to his chin in thought. “…I’ve got just the thing!” He quickly sped off while I just stood there, taking in the sights of the ballroom.

 It was a relatively large room, about the same size as the bridge, except it was empty of anything except the tree we had just dragged in. Plenty of space for dancing. Along the left wall were rows of large windows that allowed you to out into the beautiful void of space, stars and every color seen for miles. It wasn’t long before Coran returned with what looked like a large flower pot on a hovering version of those cargo-cart things you use at Home Depot.

“This should do the trick!” Coran exclaimed before sliding the pot of the cart in the middle of the ballroom. It landed with a heavy ‘thunk’ that literally shook the floor underneath my feet. What the hell was that pot made of? Cast iron? “Come one now, (y/n). Help me with this Christmas tree of yours.” Coran gestured me over to the tree.

We both lifted it up again and carried it over to the pot. I was carrying the bottom end, and upon arriving at the pot, I noticed that if was filled about three-quarters of the way with dirt with a cylinder-shaped gap in the center, no doubt carved out by Coran to fit the tree in. Angling the trunk into the hole, I held it steady as Coran pushed the top of it up until it slid into the pot and stood up right. Padding the sides of the trunk with more dirt, I only stepped away when I was sure it would be able to stand on its own.

“Alright Coran. Let’s go get Allura,” I said a smile on my face.

**.               .                .**

              After meeting back up with Allura, should pulled me around to different storage areas of the castle to find anything that resembled Christmas decorations. Instead of lights, Allura showed me a set of fifteen or so glowing orbs that came in various pale colors. They were small enough to fit one in a single hand, but they were larger than a baseball. She explained that they were objects used to help train young Altean alchemists, but she had never quite gotten the hang of it. Allura also managed to find various different ribbons of different sizes and colors, but we didn’t find much else. Rushing back to the ballroom, Allura, Coran, and I decorated the tree with a bunch of different ribbons and nestled the glowing orbs into different areas of the tree that could support them. We hooked up the remaining ribbons around the windows.

              “Well, I’d say that’s a job well done,” I said, proud of myself. Letting out a yawn, I realized just how long we had spent scouring the castle for decorations. And then I remembered. “I didn’t get presents! Allura, what am I going to do!” I quickly turned to her and grabbed her by the shoulders in desperation.

              “(y/n), don’t worry about that. You said Christmas was about spending time with loved ones, didn’t you?” Allura pointed out.

              “Yeah, but..”

              “(y/n). I’m sure that they’ll appreciate everything you’ve done today more than any kind of present you could buy.”

              “Are you sure?”

              “Positive.”

              “Okay… Okay. I--I’ll take your word for it. I think—I think I’m gonna go to bed now. Goodnight Allura. Goodnight Coran.

**.                             .                     .**

I had a hard time going to sleep tonight. I just kept thinking about what the others would think about what the Alteans and I set up in the ballroom. ‘I just hope they like it.’

**.                               .                        .**

              Waking up before the other paladins the next morning, Allura, Coran, and I decided that I would wait in the ballroom to wish the paladins a Merry Christmas when they arrived there while Coran and Allura gathered them all together and ushered them over to the ballroom all at once. I couldn’t stand still and found myself pacing back in forth in both nervousness and anticipation while I waited for the other paladins to arrive. I didn’t have to wait long before the doors slid open and everyone else walked in, huge grins plastered on Allura’s and Coran’s faces.

              “Merry Christmas everyone!” I shouted out as they looked over at me and then up at the Space Christmas Tree.

              “(y/n), did you do all of this?” Shiro was the first to speak up as he came and approached me.

              I shook my head, “No, no, Allura and Coran helped out with a lot of this.” I looked away from Shiro, directing my gaze down to the ground.

              “(y/n).” I looked back up at Shiro who gave me a gentle smile. “Thank you.”

              I smiled bashfully back at him before being squished into him as Hunk pulled us both into a huge hug. “(y/n), this is amazing! I can’t believe I didn’t realize it was Christmas already!”

              “Thank you, Hunk,” I giggled at his enthusiasm. “I’m glad you like it.” Hunk quickly put me down and went to go get a closer look at the tree and the decorations we put on it, Shiro joining him.

              “You know, this reminds me a lot of home.” I looked over to my right to see Lance now standing next to me.

              “Yeah, it does, doesn’t it? Even though we may not be home with our families, I’m glad I get to spend it with you guys.” I smiled up at Lance who quickly brought me up into a hug.

              “I am too, (y/n). Thank you.” Lance said before pulling away from the hug and joining Shiro and Hunk who were now each holding one of the glowing orbs and looking at them.

              “Who would’ve thought that you could find enough things out in space to make a Christmas tree? I mean, there’s always a possibility, but what are the chances?” Pidge commented, having accidentally snuck up on me on my left.

              “Yep. Rossa and I got lucky when finding that tree, and Allura found the ribbons and those orbs we used to decorate it. I’m actually really happy with how it turned out.”

              “Merry Christmas, (y/n).”

              “Merry Christmas, Pidge,” I said to her before she ran up to the tree to inspect the orbs, already fascinated by them.

              The only one now who wasn’t by the tree was Keith who was standing a few yards behind me. “Hey Keith,” I said, walking up to him.

              “Oh, hey (y/n).” We stood there for a few seconds, watching everyone be fascinated with the orbs and seeing Hunk shriek and fall down as the mice popped up from the tree right in front of his face. “Sorry, it’s just been a while since I’ve celebrated Christmas with so many people.”

              “Hey, Keith, it’s okay. I just want you to be comfortable, alright?”

              “…alright.”

              Giving him a final smile, I walked over to join the others by the tree. I felt my smile grow ever wider when I heard footsteps following me over to everyone else.

 

 

**A/N: Hello everybody, and Merry Christmas/ Happy Holidays! I hope you’ve all enjoyed this short little special. Whether you celebrate Christmas or not, I hope you’ve had a wonderful day and have many more to come! As always, thanks for stickin’ with me, and I hope you’ve enjoyed.**

**Love,**

**~Threbony**


	27. Quick Annoucements

Yo, so, a few things. 1: Cover contest deadline is going to be moved to January 15th due to various reasons that I’m way too fuckin lazy to get into.   
2: In case you haven’t heard, I’m doing a Q&A! Just either comment or DM me or something with a question and put Q&A somewhere in the message. If you would like to remain anonymous, just put down anonymous. The deadline for the Q&A is when I get enough questions to hold a Q&A, so who knows  
. 3. I’m going to try and put a schedule in where I’ll update every weekend from now on, but if that goes to shit, then just update every week on no specific day.   
4\. I was just informed today that I only have about two weeks of Netflix left until further notice, but I’m not giving up on this! I’m going to try my best to see what I can do!

Thank you for listening to my little list, and expect an update soon! (In the next few hours in regards to the next chapter. If you’re reading this and the next ch is already out, disregard this.)

Thank you!!!  
~Threbony


	28. Phone Freak-out

Unedited

 

 

              “Umm, yeah...? What about it?” I asked her quizzically.

              “No way! How did you get your hands on one of these?! Can I hold it?!” Pidge asked as soon as she ran up to me.

              “Sure thing…? As long as you don’t break it, it’s fine,” I said, handing her the phone.

              “I can’t believe you have one of these-- they’re ancient!” She began to mess with the buttons and was met with the menacing ‘I’m dead so you better plug me in’ interface. “And it’s still functional!”

              “Sure, it may not be the newest model, but that doesn’t mean it’s ancient,” I grumbled out. “And of course it still works, I make sure to take care of it.”

              “Not ancient? What are you talking about? This belongs in a museum! In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever seen one that still works in my life! Heck, I don’t know if any more of them that work even exist!” She took my charger from me and plugged it into her laptop, beginning to charge my phone.

              “Um, okay, Pidge? You have completely lost me at this point,” I had never felt more confused in my life—wait no, scratch that, I have. I never was good at (subject).

              “How can you still be actively using it? Aren’t you afraid to use it knowing it won’t last too long? Artefacts like these should be preserved before they stop working all together!” She had completely disregarded my last statement, still enraptured with my phone, eagerly waiting for it to power back on.

              “Well, what else am I supposed to do with a phone? Not use it? And they’re not supposed to last long. Only long enough so that you’ll keep buying their products when your old phone breaks. Y’know, capitalism and all that.”

              “(y/n), what are you talking about? You can’t just buy another one of these!”

              “Um, yeah, I can. Sure, it’s expensive and will cost me a few hundred bucks, but what choice do I have? Get an older, cheaper, used model that will only last me two months?”

              Now it was Pidge’s turn to look absolutely confused. “Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait just a second. Just how old do you think this is?”

              “I don’t know exactly, but only a few years. I mean, smart phones are a pretty recent thing, after all.”

              It was silent for a moment before Pidge spoke up again. “Hey, (y/n)? Can I ask you something? And promise me-- promise me that you won’t ask why.”

              “Um, okay…shoot.”

              “What—what year is it?” She was serious. She wasn’t joking. She had a super concerned look on her face.

              “2018(or whatever year it is when you’re reading this)—um, Pidge are you okay?” I was now looking very concerned as her face just blanched right in front of me.

              “We’re going to the Bridge. Now. Come on,” Pidge commanded, quickly grabbing my phone off the charger and taking my hand, rushing me up to the Bridge.

              “Woah, hey, Pidge, what’s gotten into you all of a sudden?”

              “Bridge first. Talk later.”

              “Okay then…”

              Pidge didn’t let go of my hand until we had arrived at the Bridge where Coran and Allura were already at. “Allura, Coran, I need you to call everyone in here immediately. We’ve got a situation on our hands that needs addressing.

              “Alright, but Pidge, may I ask what for?” Came Allura’s response, both her and Coran looking concerned yet curious.

              “I’ll explain when everyone gets here,” Pidge responding, beginning to tap her foot impatiently before she started pacing and mumbling under her breathe.

              I just stood there and waited while Allura used the com system to call everyone down. “Um, Pidge, if my phone’s alive again from that small time of charging, can I have it back?”

              “Oh, yeah, here,” Pidge handed me my phone, still looking deep in thought.

              “Thanks, hun,” I immediately opened it and went to the memes folder on my camera roll. Oh, how I’ve missed these pieces of heaven. I was too busy looking at my glorious memes to notice Pidge’s face turning a bit pink.

              “Princess, what’s happened?” asked Shiro as he rushed into the room, the other paladins following close behind.

              “Actually, I’m the one who needed everyone to be here,” Pidge spoke. “You see, we have a um… a _situation_ on our hands, and whether it’s good or bad, well, I’m not sure. (y/n)?” Pidge walked up to me.

              “Hmm? What is it?” I asked, looking up from my meme device.

              “What year did you say it was again?”

              “20XX,” I replied, immediately getting weird stares from everyone like I was crazy. “Okay, guys. Seriously, what’s wrong? I mean, it’s not my fault that I don’t know if New Year’s has passed or not, so why are you all so freaked out if I’m off by a year? I mean, for the first month of the new year, tons of people accidentally write down the date as the past year.”

              “(y/n), it’s not 20XX,” Keith said, surprising me that he would be the one to speak.

              “Really? Then how long ago was New Year’s?” I asked. ‘Damn, have we really been in space that long?’

              “Hey, uh, (y/n)?” Hunk came and put his hands on my shoulders. “Please— _please_ tell me you’re joking right now. You’re kidding, right?” Hunk started to sound more and more anxious and freaked out.

              “No, I—I’m pretty serious. But really, when was New Year’s?” I asked.

              “She’s being serious Hunk, just look at the evidence!” Pidge grabbed my phone from my hand and showed it to the others. “This is (y/n)’s phone and it _works_. According to her, it’s not even that old either.”

              “Woah, are you serious!” Lance exclaimed, getting a closer look at my phone.

              “Guys, it’s just a phone; why are you all getting so worked up about it?” Seriously, everyone was acting so weird.

              “(y/n), 20XX was decades ago,” Shiro said, no hint of amusement on his face.

              “I’m sorry, what?”

              “It’s been a long time since it was 20XX, (y/n),”Pidge further explained. “I’m not going to tell you how long to avoid a major freak out, plus I’m not sure what the consequences might be if I were to reveal the information to you, so I’ll narrow it down to a few simple facts. One, we have hovercrafts now—Keith has one. Two, it takes only a few months to get to Kerberos.”

              “What. WHAT. WE HAVE HOVERCRAFTS?! And what the hell is Kerberos.”

              “One of Pluto’s moons.”

              “It takes only a few months to get to Pluto?! Last time I checked it took five years to get to Mars!”

              “(y/n), it’s a completely different era than what you know,” Shiro stared me straight in the eye.

              “Wait, wait, wait wait, so, let me get this straight,” I rubbed my temples to soothe the ever growing headache that I now had. “So, you guys think that I traveled through time to get here? I mean how the hell is that possible? Wait, don’t tell me you guys invented time travelling too?!” I got a silent nod from everything. “I think—I think I’m gonna go lay down. Yeah, that sounds like a plan. Lay down and think about things.” I didn’t give anyone else a chance to say anything and rushed off to my room.

              ‘How the hell is that even possible? I mean, time travel? That stuff only happens in fiction ‘n stuff. Did I really travel through time to who knows how many years into the future? And why can’t they just tell me what year it really is? I mean, maybe what Pidge says has some merit, because when somebody travels a certain amount of time, you’re not supposed to reveal too much in fear of completely changing the events of the future if said time traveler goes back to their own time. But if I traveled through time then that means… I don’t have a home on Earth to go back to anymore…’ I stopped in my tracks, just standing in the middle of the hallway. ‘Everything I ever knew is… gone. My home, my friends, my family… I don’t have that to look forward to anymore, do I? What the hell am I doing here… I don’t belong here…’ I silently went back to my room, collapsing down on the bed.

              “I guess I might as well sleep and hope for a dream to greet me. Afterall, (y/n)… your dreams are your only home now.”

              I let myself fall into the land of dreams, the only place that was home—the only place I never felt sad.

 

 

 

**A/N: Heyyyy so how’d you like it? Hmmmm??? Sorry, sorry, I’m a sucker for Isekai-like stories, but yeah. Reader is now a time traveler. Or _is_ she? Guess you’ll have to wait and find out hmmm? But yeah, sorry it’s shorter than normal, these holiday times are hectic for me. Also also, if you have any sort of question, no matter what it is, please don’t be afraid to ask it! It can be anything as basic and unrelated as ‘Do you like turtles?’ and I’ll answer in my Q &A. (P.S. I do like turtles.) As always, thanks for stickin with me, and I hope you’ve enjoyed!**

**XOXO**

**~Threbony**


	29. I may have signed up for this, but I don't want anyone dead

Unedited

 

‘Blegh, my mouth tastes like shit,’ was the first thought I had when I woke up. I got up with a few grunts, my entire body whining and complaining about wanting to sleep more. I trudged my way over to the bathroom to brush my teeth and hopefully get the awful taste out of my mouth. After all my morning stuff was done and I was wearing my paladin armor, I made my way down to the Bridge where everyone already was, standing in a semi-circle around Allura’s platform, except Coran who was up at the front. “Morning.”

              “Good morning, (y/n),” Shiro replied. “How are you feeling?”

              “Tired, but besides that, pretty normal.”

              “Oh, (y/n), you never took your phone back, so I have it in my room,” Pidge said.

              “Ah, thanks Pidge. I’ll get it later,” I said as I stood between Shiro and Pidge.

              “Also, you left before I got to answer your question: no, we have not invented time travel.”

              “Wait, you mean all of that wasn’t a dream!?” I shouted before murmuring “well, damn” under my breath.

              “(y/n), are you sure you’re okay?” Shiro asked, concerned.

              “Yeah, yeah, I’m fine. It’s just a lot to take in, suddenly finding out everything you ever knew is gone. I’ll be fine though, so don’t worry,” I sent him a reassuring smile, but the concerned frown remained on his face.

              “We’ll be arriving at the Balmera soon,” Allura spoke before anyone else could question my state of being. “Liberating these Balmerans from Zarkon’s grasp will not be easy.”

              “So, what’s the plan? We go in there and just—pow, pow, pow!” Lance pretended to shoot with hand guns with every ‘pow.’ “And free the prisoners?”

              “What was that noise?” Keith had a weird look on his face.

              “Laser guns,” Lance said with a tone that oozed with something that was a mix between confidence and smugness.

              “No, Lance, I think you mean—pkeuw pkeuw pkeuw!” (I have no idea how to spell the sounds he made) Hunk corrected, also doing a set of motions to symbolize firing a gun. “Pkeuw!” He finished with a move that looked like he was shooting a giant laser cannon.

              “That sounds like fireworks,” Lance disagreed with Hunk.

              “Technically, they’re more like—ba-choo, ba-choo, ba-choo!” Pidge hopped on the band wagon.

              “No, no, no, it’s gotta be—pew, pew, pew! Like that cliché sci-fi noise that the guns at laser-tag make,” I joined in, because I knew that I was most definitely right.

              “Okay, enough with the bad sound effects,” Shiro scolded us like a ~~hot~~ dad. “Besides, it’s more like—blam, blam, blam!”

              “What! No way!” from Lance.

              “You’re crazy,” from Pidge.

              “Uh, wrong,” from Hunk.

              “Paladins, focus,” it was Allura’s turn to get our attention.

              “But we are focusing,” I interrupted. “We gotta know what sound affect to make when we—sorry—Hunk and Lance shoot their guns… Unless my scythe is also a gun?!” ‘Nah, that could never work.’ Allura gave me a cold look that just screamed she wasn’t about to take my shit. I shut up.

              “Besides, we can’t just shoot at the Galra,” Hunk brought in the rational side. “This Balmera, it’s, like, alive. And from what we’ve seen, it doesn’t look very good.”

              “Yes, it’s an atrocity what the Galra have been doing to this grand beast,” Coran said solemnly, bringing our attention to the large front window where we could see the Balmera getting closer. “Stealing its crystals, its very life force, without ever performing the energy rejuvenation ceremonies to heal it.”

              “After seeing Shay’s people enslaved, it made me realize how bad Zarkon really is,” Hunk never sounded surer of himself. “And we’re the only ones who can stop him.”

              ‘It kind of reminds me of our own human history… well, history repeats itself, doesn’t it?’

              “Okay, so we can’t go into the tunnels guns blazing,” Shiro thought aloud. “Plan B. We figure out how to draw the Galra up to the surface and battle them out there.”

              “Wait—I know,” Hunk became very determined. “If we attack all of this big mining stuff on the surface, the Galra troops will have to come out to defend it. Then we beat them up, head down to the tunnels, Voltron saves the day.”

              “But how will we know how many are left in the tunnels?” Keith brought up a good point.

              “We can track the Galra and the Balmerans using Biothermal Life Indicator Point Technology,” Allura brought up a hologram of a hand-sized device.

              “Oh, BLIP tech!” Pidge instantly went up to the hologram, still fascinated by it. “It’s an acronym.”

              “One of you will need to fly around the balmera and drop sensors int the shafts on each side,” Allura continued. “Then we’ll be able to see where the Galra and the Balmerans are. There are already sensors built into your suits.”

              “I’ll do it! I’d rather not do any of the beating of the up anyway,” I volunteered.

              “I’m only worried that you’ll end up getting surrounded by the Galra and unable to continue to plant the sensors,” Allura said, turning her attention to me.

              “I can do it,” Pidge was the next to volunteer. “I just modified the Green Lion with the invisible maze’s cloaking ability. I should be able to fly around unnoticed.”

              “Guess I’ll have to do the beatings of the ups anyhow,” I sighed dejectedly.

              “That’s their main power generator,” Coran pulled up an image of a Galran construction on the main screen. “If you take that down, it will severely weaken their defenses.”

              “We’ll stay in cloud cover and give tactical support,” Allura said. “With the Castle’s defenses weakened from Sendak’s crystal, we won’t be of much help to you.”

              “I’ll take out the power generator,” Shiro started giving out our orders. “Keith, Lance, Hunk

, (y/n), you take out these big mining rigs around the area.”

              “Yeah! Okay, let’s do this! Let’s go kick some alien butt!” Hunk fist pumped, clearly itching and ready to go.

              “Yeah! Let’s not go commit a massacre!” I whispered under my breath with as much gusto as a whisper can muster and anxiety riddling my voice. “We’ll just beat them up and make ‘em retire but not kill people!”

**.                              .                          .**

As soon as the Castleship broke through the first layer of the Balmera’s atmosphere, we headed down to the lions to get ready to depart.

              “You think the Balmerans will have a parade for us after we’ve freed everybody?” Lance asked, clearly wanting to have his own parade.

              “It’s not about the glory, Lance,” Keith pointed out. “It’s about freeing prisoners from Zarkon.”

              “Yeah, and besides, it’s not fun being in a parade,” I added. “Trust me, I’ve had my own experience of being in a parade before, and I’m never doing it again.”*

              “No, I know. I know.” Lance tried to reason. “But still, when they—” he was cut off by his lion launching itself out of the hangar.

              Upon flying down to the Balmera’s surface while maintaining formation, as soon as we got past the clouds, we were being shot at. Like what the fuck.

              “This is it,” Shiro spoke with a serious tone. “Get your heads in the game—”

              “Shiro, this is no time for a High School Musical reference! And if you’re going to make one, you have to sing it!” I shouted while dodging the lasers.

              Shiro sighed. “Just remember, the Balmera is a living creature. Make sure you pinpoint only the Galra installations and not its surface.”

              We all flew in close to one of the mining rigs. Lance fired his laser at some of the posts that wer firing at us, Hunk rammed into some of them, and Shiro used his newly obtained jawblade to cut more of them. “Okay, Rossa. It’s no big deal. I’m sure there’re only non-sentient androids in there. Right? Right. Here we go!” I flew in close and fired a myriad of lasers at the rig, causing a chain of explosions in my wake. “I’m sorry if I killed you!” I screamed as I flew out of the way before Keith fired his heat ray, which I was not expecting to be a heat ray.

              “Whoa!” I heard Keith exclaim like a little kid. “Did you guys just see that? I got fire power!” I had never heard him so excited before—it was adorable but I’m never gonna let him know that.

              “Hey! I want that!” Lance whined, also like a little kid.

              “Woah!” Hunk shrieked as the tower began to fall, quickly catching it with his lion. “Hey, we can’t let this thing hurt the Balmera.

              “I think my lion knows what to do!” Lance flew his lion over to the tower and fired an ice beam at it, freezing it upright so it wouldn’t crash onto the Balmera. “Aw, snap! These rays are super cool, just like me!

              “Too bad you ain’t supah hot ~~bitch~~!” I responded, earning an insulted ‘hey!’ from Lance. “Ha ha, kidding—I’m kidding.” ‘Good one (y/n). Thanks, (y/n).’

              “Great job, team!” Shiro praised us as we all landed on the now-icy tower.

              After a short moment of silence, we noticed something was wrong. “Where are all the troops?” Keith asked the question we all had in our minds. “They’re not coming to the surface.”

              “Yeah, I remember seeing a lot of Galra guys down in the mines,” Hunk pointed out, also confused.

              “Wait, does that mean we already killed everyone!?” I shrieked, starting to freak out. “Oh, I knew this was a bad idea! I knew history would repeat itself! Ahh! I didn’t want to kill anybody!”

              “(y/n), seeing as we weren’t met with any resistance from Galra fighter ships, it’s safe to say that the Galra were never on the surface in the first place,” Pidge reassured me, trying to calm me down.

              “Yeah, that—that makes a lot of sense. Okay, I’m okay.” I started to take deep breaths to calm myself down.

              “We’ve located a hangar full of Galra fighters just below the surface,” Allura contacted us from the castle. “Someone has to take those out before they can launch.”

              “They’re luring us down, but we have no choice,” Shiro said, a hint of a conflicted tone staining his voice. “(y/n), Keith, Lance, you guys hit the hangar. Hunk, head to the prison to rescue Shay and the other Balmerans. Pidge and I will track down the Galra soldiers.” Shiro shot off the pillar.

              “Yes, sir,” Keith was the first to follow.

              “Ten-four,” Lance was next.

              “Okey dokey!” I followed immediately after.

              “On it,” Pidge was after me.

              “Let’s do this!” Hunk was the last.

 

 

 

 

*Back in 2008(I think, give or take a year), I was in the Detroit Thanksgiving Day Parade. In nothing but a leotard, tights, and a pair of gloves. I had to wake up at 4a.m. which doesn’t seem as big as a deal now, but back then when I was eight years old, it was a big deal. It was freezing and the two handwarmers we were given only lasted so long. Never again.

**A/N: Okay, it’s been a bit longer that I had wanted, but hey! I’m back! Didja miss me? Anyways, I’ve got five days of Netflix left, but I’m gonna pull some money out of my personal savings to pay for another month for my family, so problem solved for now! Christmas drained almost all of my money so now I’m actually broke. I only have coins left. (I only had eight bucks, which is now all going towards Netflix.) Also, I got a Ko-Fi if you wanna support me! I do commissions on there too, the only requirement being that I need a reference to what you want, whether it’s a drawing or a piece of writing or whatever. Commissions start at $3 if anybody is interested! Anyway, thanks for stickin with me, and I hope you’ve enjoyed!**

**XOXO**

**~Threbony**


	30. Q&A

Q&A

This will be a continuous Q&A, being updated whenever I get a new question in. Don’t be afraid to ask anything on your mind unless it’s political because I don’t dabble in that shit. But even if you wanna know something as simple as do you like whales? Just ask and I'll answer. (I like whales.)

 

  1. From Skylar O’Shea on AO3: Which do you enjoy writing more, fanfiction or original works? Why? 
    1. I actually enjoy writing original works more, but they’re a lot harder for me to keep going then fanfiction because I have to plan out all of the plot line, while in fanfics I only have to plan out some of it. But I enjoy writing original works more because I get to use my own characters who are my babies and I love watching them all grow and interact and I just feel so much like a mom. I do get some of the same degree from fanfics, but not as much since the characters aren’t my own babies, but somebody else’s. All in all, I just want to feel loved. (^ v ^)
  2. From mmartinez5426 on Wattpad: How many parts or episodes are in this fanfic? Or in this case, how long will this fanfic be? 
    1. How many parts, well, I have no fucking clue. But I’m planning on getting all the way to the end of Voltron, as well as… _tweakin_ g some things along the way *cough cough* season 8 *cough* but there also will be some more original content coming (just you wait until we finish the first season, I’ve got some good stuff planned out).
  3. From anime375 on Quotev: Who do you think is best boi!? 
    1. Okay, I’m taking this in two different ways:1) who’s my favorite or 2) who in general is just the bestest boi. So I’ll answer both. Keith is my personal favorite (don’t worry this fic won’t just turn into a keith x reader, there will be separate endings), but the best boi has got to be Hunk. Like, how can you not just love that big cinnamon roll?
  4. From Vicsanaredvi on Wattpad: Will there be any shipping in this book? If so, who? 
    1. Putting in ships in a reader-insert book is like talking about politics at the dinner table to me: everybody just gets riled up and then feels awkward or shitty in some form or another, so I don’t plan to put any ships besides x-reader to avoid any potential chaos. The only kinds of shipping that will occur that aren’t x-reader will only be if I think they are significant to the plot of the story. I’ll update this when I think of any ships I’ll have.
  5. From livlove_anime on Wattpad: Why is the title _Perpendicular_? 
    1. Well if I told you that, it’d give away a huge plot point that’s happening fairly soon. So you’ll have to stay tuned and find out~ I’ll let you speculate on that a little bit. Please let me know any thoughts as to why you think I’ve named it such; I’m curious and anxious to know everyone’s thoughts.



                                                                                                                                             


	31. CC final annoucement

There is still no third place, so if you want to get a prize go for it right now! It ends the fifteenth! If you have any questions, concerns, or anything, just DM me! This can be anything like if you don't know how to reach me or if you can't do digital art but can do traditional, etc. You can also look at the previous cover contest announcement for more information. But if you want your own little oneshot, you might want to consider entering in the contest~

Here are the prizes again:

1st place: 2500+ word chapter of the reader with the character of our choice in a scenario of either their choosing.

2nd place: 2000+ word chapter of the reader with the character of their choice in a scenario of their choosing.

3rd place: 1500+ word chapter of the reader with the character of their choosing in a scenario of their choosing.


	32. Space Whale

Unedited

 

I followed Keith and Lance down into one of the mind shafts, taking my little hovercar thing that was in my lion since the tunnels were too narrow for our lions. We rode down in silence and hopped out of our hovercars once we saw the hangar filled with fighter ships slightly below us. Sliding down to get a closer look, it almost appeared to be void of life.

              “The entire hangar’s only being guarded by a few sentries,” Keith observed. He took out his bayard, about to charge in. “Let’s go!”

              “Whoa, whoa, whoa! Cool your jets, Keith!” Lance grabbed Keith by his shoulder and pushed him back down. Keith pouted, and he just looked so much like a toddler I almost shrieked in laughter. “Don’t you remember all that stuff about this Balmera thing being a sensitive animal?”

              “Oh, right,” Keith looked a little embarrassed about his little mess up.

              “Yeah, so we can’t just blow things up like a psycho.”

              “Oh, you got a better idea?” Keith challenged, not liking Lance’s attitude.

              “I do,” Lance pointed to a room on the opposite side of the hangar. “We sneak into the control room to shut down the bay doors; that’ll trap the ships in,” he had the smuggest look on his face because he knew he was right.

              “That…” Keith began to argue, but cut himself off, “actually is a better idea.”

              “Alright, now if you two are done bickering like an old married couple, let’s get a move on,” I said, earning an offended ‘hey!’ from both of them, but I was already ahead of them and didn’t bother looking back. I heard their footsteps behind me as we snuck across to the other side, walking across one of the nearby catwalks that lead directly to the area above the control room.

              “Alright, I’m going to cut down into the control room; follow my lead,” Keith said as we reached the end of the catwalk.

              Lance had something to say in protest, but I put my finger in front of my mouth and shushed him because I knew he was going to be loud and we couldn’t allow anyone to discover our location. Immediately after getting off the catwalk, Keith took out his bayard, about to cut through the ceiling.

              “No, no. It’s over here,” Lance redirected Keith to another part of the ceiling.

              “I know what I’m doing,” Keith ignored Lance, stabbing right through the ceiling, cutting out a circle shape.

              Lance proceed to jump onto the now cut-out circle, causing it along with himself to slam down into the control room, landing with a loud ‘clank.’ Keith hopped down after him; I jumped down afterwards, trying not to shriek from the weird tingly feeling shooting up from my feet to my knees when I landed.

              “Keep an eye out for those guards,” Lance said while he inspected the control panel in front of him. “I’ll see if I can find a way to shut the hangar doors.

              Keith walked over to the window while I stared at the control panel next to Lance.

              “I can’t read any of this,” I commented, seeing nothing but foreign characters littering the screen.

              “Uh…hmm. Nope. Maybe. Uh…” Lance began muttering to himself, trying to figure out what he was supposed to do. He started pressing some buttons at the bottom of the screen, but nothing happened. He groaned in frustration. “I don’t know what I’m doing here. It’s all Galra gibberish.”

              “You wanna see if you can make any sense of this mess, Keith?” I offered, stepping back from the control panel.

              “Let me see,” Keith said as he came over to the control panel. He looked it over and then put his hand up at the top of the screen, causing the large button he pressed to turn bright red and then the computer beeped in response. Then the hangar doors closed.

              “Whoa! How’d you do that?” Lance exclaimed, surprised at Keith.

              “I… just put my hand on the handprint,” Keith said, also seemingly dumbfounded that it worked.

              “I guess it does kind of look like a hand, doesn’t it,” I said looking at it more closely. “If a hand had three fingers or was doing the ‘live long and prosper’ thing.”

              Before anything else could be said, Allura contacted us, “Paladins, are you there? The Galra troops are moving down the tunnels. It looks like they’re going down toward the center.”

              “They must be headed to the core,” Hunk’s voice came over the radio next, “That’s where they’re holding Shay.”

              “They’re drawing us into an ambush, but we don’t have a choice if we want to save Shay,” Shiro’s voice came next, giving the final order of what needed to be done. We had to walk right into their trap. “We have to follow. Lance, Keith, (y/n), get to the core. I think we’re going to need everyone together to get through this firefight.”

              “Copy that,” Lance responded for us. “We’re on our way.”

              Getting up, we all ran back to the small floating cars that we had, but not before Keith slashed through the console with his sword, rendering it useless to anyone who might try to come open the hangar doors. Lance then shot the control panel that opens the door to the main room, making it so that nobody could even get into the room. Reaching our vehicles, which I now learned were called ‘Speeders’ from Allura instructing Pidge to get out of hers because she was in a too narrow space, we sped off deeper into the Balmera. Eventually, we also came to a part where the tunnel became too narrow for our speeders, so we hopped out and ran further down the tunnel. Now, it wasn’t my idea to run, but the two guys in front of me had other ideas, so I had no choice but to run after them.

              “Hey, team, be careful,” Pidge’s voice graced my ears as we ran. “The Balmera is very unstable.”

              Immediately after she said that, our group came to a halt as we happened upon a gaggle of Galra droids who immediately shot at us. I didn’t have much time to think, diving to the right to avoid getting shot. Staying down, I knelt within a nook next to Keith, pressed completely up against the wall to avoid being hit. Lance was in his own little nook on the other side of the tunnel.

              “Their shooting is destroying the Balmera,” Keith shouted over the sound of lasers. “We gotta do something.”

              The Balmera moaned, and it was at that moment that I knew for sure. The Balmera was a giant space whale. I put my hand up to my mouth to try and make it look like I was deep in thought, but really, I was just trying to hide the cheek-splitting smile I had on my face because I was on a planet-sized whale.

              “Well, we can’t shoot back,” Lance said, trying to get Keith to help think of ideas of what to do. “It’ll just make it worse.”

              “Then we just have to charge int,” I said, taking my bayard and shield out, and rushed right into the fray, not giving the other two a chance to stop me. I stood there, blocking their lasers with my shield, slowly pushing forward. A few seconds later, Lance jumped out next to me, taunting the androids with a confident ‘nana nana boo-boo’ before putting up his shield as well. I continued to push forward while Lance stood in place, but I didn’t have to do much for long before Keith came from above and took out all the sentries in a matter of seconds. Putting our shields away (and my bayard), Lance shot Keith a thumbs-up.

              “All right guys, let’s go,” I said, running up to Keith. “I’m not gonna stand by any longer and let the Galra hurt this giant space whale!”

              “Space whale?” Lance asked, now running alongside me. He looked quite confused.

              “It makes whale noises, so it’s a planet-sized space whale and I have now dubbed it my friend,” I said a-matter-of-fact-ly. “Now let’s help Shay and this whale!”

 

 

 

**A/N: This is the first chapter I have written since catching up with the Jojo anime and I have to say, I am loving it. Jotaro is the best Jojo, hands down fight me (please don’t) I love him to death like fuck me up man. I love him. JOJOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO DIOOOOOOOOOOOOO AAAAAAAAAAHHH ORA ORA MUDA MUDA FUCK ME UP AAAAH okay okay that’s enough, sorry. I’m just so happy I gave in and finally watched Jojo after being bugged to watch it for three years. Also, sorry it’s a little short. College just started back up and I’m trying to get back into the swing of things. Anyway, thanks for sticking with me and I hope you’ve enjoyed!**

**XOXO**

**~Threbony**

**P.S. I was listening to the Jojo Stardust Crusaders OST while writing this.**


	33. on a certain cold morning, I'll return home

Hey guys, I just wanted to apologize and give you an explanation as to why I haven’t been all that active this past month. Currently, in my daily life, I’ve been struggling with so many things and I’ve just been going through a really hard time, due to illness on top of other things. This semester hasn’t been kind to me so far, and I’m overloading at 4.5 credits, when we’re recommended to not take more than 4 per semester (at my college, a standard class is worth 1 credit and we need 32 in total over four years, so I’m currently taking 6 classes, since two are worth .25). My one chemistry lab class is only worth .25 credits, even though the homework load is much more than that of any of my 1 credit courses and it’s complete bullshit (and I suck at math so I’m bad at it.). So right now, I’m just trying to get my life back on track before coming back to this. It just feels like I’ve been drowning within myself this past week and I can’t breathe. So I’m going on a short hiatus, and coming back when my life is back on track, especially since these past few weeks, along with this one and the next one, have just been test after test after test. I need a break. Spring break ain’t until March 8th. My battery’s low. It’s getting dark. I just want to sleep.

I need to rest.

I’m going to bed.

See you soon, you space cowboy.


	34. I Just Wanna Listen to the Space Whale

Unedited

_________________-

 

              As soon as we entered the core of the Balmera, the Galra doors slammed shut behind us, preventing us from leaving. Looking around, I noticed that all the other doors had also been shut, so we really had no way of exiting.

              “Not an ambush. More like a trap,” Hunk pointed out.

              “Whatever it is, keep your guard up,” Keith said as Shiro and Pidge jumped down from the higher level to where the rest of us were, including Shay.

              “The Galra, they gained knowledge that you would return to the Balmera,” Shay said.

              “How?” Pidge asked from behind her.

              “I know not,” Shay responded, turning to face Pidge. “But they set this trap just for you. I was the bait.” She looked so dejected to have been used in such a way, that I couldn’t help but give her a reassuring smile as I put a hand on her shoulder. She smiled back in understanding, but still had that sad look in her eyes.

              “Who could have possibly known that we were heading here to save Shay?”

              “Rolo,” Hunk said, realizing that there was close to no other explanation. “Those liars must have told Zarkon.”

              “We have to figure out how to get out of here,” Shiro firmly stated, taking a step back towards the door he came from.

              “Wait! We have a giant Castle ship hovering in the sky,” Lance pointed out. “Allura, can you please come get us?”

              “How do you expect her to do that, genius?” Keith rejected Lance’s suggestion.

              “I don’t know, maybe they got teleporters or something,” Lance defended.

              “I think they would’ve told us before hand if they could just beam us back up to the ship,” I put in my point, holding back from saying ‘beam me up, Scotty.’

              “We’re quite occupied at the moment,” Allura’s voice came through the coms, followed by a grunt. “We’re completely surrounded by Galra ships, and we’re taking heavy fire! Paladins, you need to get out of there as soon as you can!”

              “This is it! We’re going to die in here,” Lance whined, having immediately given up. “I can say bye-bye to that parade.” We all just stared at Lance in disbelief that he was worried about a parade of all things.

              “Get it together, guys,” Shiro took our attention away from Lance. “Allura, we’ll get there as soon as we can.”

              “Perhaps my people can help us get out,” Shay offered, before placing her hand on the large orange core with off-shoots that glowed blue in the center of the room. “This is how we communicate. The Balmera senses our vibrations and sends a message to those in the tunnels.”

              “Are you sure someone will be able to hear your… hand from all the way down here?” Keith asked, skeptical.

              “The Balmera will deliver the message,” Shay restated, firm in her belief, before closing her eyes.

              We all watched as the core glowed faintly beneath her palm, and the Balmera began to softly sing. I couldn’t help but smile—the whale like sounds brought me peace and reminded me of earth. Oh, how I love space whales. My drifting mind, soothed by the Balmera’s voice, was suddenly snapped back to reality by Allura’s voice.

              “Paladins, the lions are in danger! You must go back to them immediately!” There was a moment of silence before Allura spoke again. “Paladins, do you copy? There’s a battle cruiser locked onto us. If it fires with its ion cannon, I don’t know if we can survive.

              “We’re trying, Allura,” Lance said, and at that point I decided to listen to the whale sounds again, completely ignoring the others around me.

              ‘Ah, I love those whale sounds. I’ve always wanted to swim with a whale. But then again, it’s dangerous because certain whales make super loud clicking noises that can actually temporarily paralyze you… I wonder if the Balmera could make those loud clicking noises and paralyzed the Galra? Hmm…’  I nearly screeched when there was a small explosion behind us on the upper level of the chamber. And then, we saw Shay’s family coming through a gap in the wall where the door used to be.

              “Rax!” Shay called out, relieved to see her family.

              “We must make haste,” Rax said, worried. “We know a shortcut through the tunnels.”

              “Allura, stand by. We’re on our way up,” Shiro spoke as he and the rest of us ran up to meet up with Shay’s family and get the hell out of there.

              We all ran back to where our little speeders were, taking off to our respective lions. When I arrived at my lion, I saw her being hoisted up by the tractor beams of two Galra fighter ships. I quickly guided my speeder up, into my lion before running up to the cockpit, quickly taking control of my lion. And then I busted my ass getting out of there, not giving two shits about anything else—just took off.\

              “Guys, did everyone make it to the lions in time?” I heard Shiro ask.

              “Come on, Shiro,” Lance said with some smug confidence as the rest of us piloted our lions up to ride next to Shiro. “Who you think you’re dealing with, a bunch of amateurs?” That smugness immediately left when he ran head first into a pillar that the rest of us avoided. I let out a small pfff-hhh in stifled laughter.

              “Do you really want me to answer that?” Shiro asked, a hint of a snide tone in his voice.

              “No,” Lance replied, embarrassed.

Shiro shouted a ‘let’s go!’ and not a second later, we were being bombarded by lasers from the hundreds of Galra fighters swarming the planet. And then everyone else fired back, myself included, besides Hunk who just bashed into the fighter, and Shiro who used his jawblade. Keith and Lance also switched between using their normal lasers, as well as their respective fire and ice lasers. I could faintly hear the others talking, but I was too busy panicking because we were in the middle of a BATTLEFIELD, FIGHTING FOR OUR LIVES. I was a bit preoccupied, trying not to die while having a panic attack. It was just oh, there’s something there, shooting at me. What should I do? I guess I should shoot it. So, I shot it. And that’s all I did. I was not made for fighting.  I will never be made for fighting. I just want to sleep! And to sleep, I must fight! Because if there’s one thing I’ve learned from video games, it’s that you can’t sleep when there are enemies nearby.

              “Paladins, I need you immediately!” Allura called out, desperate. “Five more ticks and we’re finished!”

              “Okay, team, let’s form Voltron!” Shiro shouted, having the rest of us take place.

              ‘Finally, I can relax a little and just focus on diverting power. Hah… no more direct fighting for me!’ I was finally able to breathe and calm down.

              I watched as Voltron flew up to the Galra cruiser, and placed its hands on the bottom, pushing up to try and redirect its aim away from the Castle. Playing my part, I put more power into the booster jets to help apply more force on the cruiser. Everyone else began yelling in unison determination. I didn’t know what to do, so I just sat there quietly, observing my power fluctuation charts. None of which I could truly get a grasp on because all of the labels were in Altean. Pidge had helped translate some of it, but we didn’t have much free time for her to focus on translating things, but I got the gist of it and knew what to do for the most part. It didn’t take long before we were successful in our endeavor and altered the ion cannon’s trajectory. We then flew away just as a beam from the Castle fired into the underside of the cruiser, barreling straight through it, causing it to explode. It was too bright, so I had to look away. I heard cheering from the other paladins, and a ‘nice shot, princess,’ from Pidge. I just sighed in relief and slumped back in my chair, glad that it was finally over.

              ‘Oh… oh, wait… We most certainly killed people…shit…’ And just like that, my mood was ruined. I rerouted back to its standards as Voltron landed on the surface of the Balmera with a solid ‘thud.’

              “Mission accomplished,” Keith said, obviously content and a bit proud of the work everyone did.

              “And just in the tick of time,” Allura continued as she and Coran brought the Castle closer to the Balmera. “The Castle’s defenses are battered and will need to fully recharge. She was interrupted by the alarms going off in the Castle.

              “There’s an unknown object incoming! It’s about to crash into the Balmera!” Coran shouted, obviously worried.

              The UFO crashed with an explosion, kicking up large clouds of dust, making it impossible to see what it was for before the dust settled.

              “What the heck is that?” Lance asked.

              There was an ominous, coffin-like structure appearing from the settling dust clouds, black and gray with bright red accents.

              “Trouble,” Shiro responded, without hesitance.

 

 

 

 

 

**A/N: And after two months, I’m finally back! Also, sorry about you guys who are waiting for the cover contest results, it’ll be the next thing I’ll post~ But thank you all so much for sticking with me after this long break. My last day of class is May 9 th, so I’ve only got another month and a half to go before I’m free and actually have some time to do stuff! With this, we’ve finally finished episode 7, hooray! Anyways, thank you so much, and I hope you’ve all enjoyed.**

**XOXO**

**~Threbony**

**Author's Note:**

> Polls that effect the story (they decide the special) are on my quotev account under the same name, so if you want to participate in those, go there!
> 
>  
> 
> Ey yo whaddup hun, heya cuties, I've got a discord if ya ever wanna chat!
> 
> discord.gg/Dxq5qk9


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